The Seventh International Conference on E-Learning

Conference Title

The Seventh International Conference on E-Learning and E-Technologies in Education (ICEEE2018)

Conference Dates

September 17-19, 2018

Conference Venue

Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland

ISBN

978-1-941968-49-9 ©2018 SDIWC

Published by

The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications (SDIWC) www.sdiwc.net

Table of Contents

What about Mathematics with Using ICT in Education ……………………………..………………………………. 1

Internal Medicine Department of Higher Educational Medical Institution Web-Site Organization and Structure Based on Modern Educational Web-Technologies ……………………………………………… 10

The literature review of the evaluation of blended learning …………………………………………………..…. 20

Student Feedback through Desktop Capture: Creative Screen-casting ..…………………………………….. 32

Accessibility to Disabled Users: A Keyboard Application for LD Students …………………………………… 44

What about Mathematics with Using ICT in Education

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Jacek Stando1, Ján Gunčaga2 and Beatrix Bačová3 Technical University, Lodz, Poland, 2Faculty of Education of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, 3University of Zilina, Slovakia [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT Many pupils and students at primary, secondary schools and universities have a non-adequate attitude to mathematics. Their imaginations and attitudes are on the scale from high admiration to rejection of mathematics as such. We suppose that the problem is not in mathematics itself but in the way and art of its teaching. In our paper, we try to find answers to following questions: What is the significance of mathematics for the human life and how is this significance presented in education? What role does this teaching mathematics have in human life? Where is it possible to meet mathematics? Is some lesson of mathematics for each of us only one of the lessons, which we must to stay someway? Using ICT in education can help by the solving of these questions.

KEYWORDS ICT in mathematics education, State Educational Curriculum ISCED 2, 3 Mathematics, GeoGebra, Matlab, Educational reform, real-life problems in mathematics education.

1 ICT IN EDUCATIONAL PROCESS According Lamanauskas in [6] new technologies consistently and rather aggressively keep penetrating into educational practice. It brings emerging challenges both for teachers and students in every type of schools. We can identify at least three reasons for promoting the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Mathematics teaching in schools (see [7]):

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a) Desirability: The use of ICT stimulate motivation of students and curiosity; encourage them to develop their problemsolving strategies. The use of ICT may improve efficiency of teachers educational activities, release more time to address students individually, stimulate re-thinking their approach to teaching and understanding. b) Inevitability: Many fields of publishing have moved from printing to electronic form. This applies to conference proceedings, reference works such as encyclopaedias, webpages, online applications, small-circulation textbooks, special journals, etc. c) Public policy: There is defined in Slovak National Curriculum ISCED 1, 2 and 3 that mathematics as a subject belongs to the group “mathematics and working with information”. Important aspect of ICT aided education is the visualization. It can bring for mathematics education:  Effective approach while discovering the results, solving problems and discovering the very structure of the model,  Visualization of relations and functional connections in one model allows to deduce new results in other areas and fields of mathematics and other subjects in relationship with mathematics and other natural sciences,  Supporting of mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology; digital competence; learning to learn key competencies. The method of generating problems (see [14]) seems to be suitable for this purpose (due to its systematically creating sets of internally

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connected problems). Student´s activities and instructions have to be regarded as complementary factors in the learning process. These factors both are necessary and must be systematically related to one another so that optimal progress can occur. The aim of our method is to create areas in which the students may–using the result of guided teaching–move as independently as possible, and in which students develop their own initiatives. Students are considering their own problem and they could ask for help as far as it is necessary. By this way they obtain basis for further work. After a problem has been completely solved and clarified the teacher together with students is thinking about further questions and generate problems which are related to the problem just solved. Thus the original problem acts as a generating problem; we will call it generator problem (GP). Related problems are obtained by analogy, variation, generalization, specialization etc. The group of all new problems together with their GP will be called the set of generated problems of the GP or the problem domain of GP. 2 MATHEMATICS ARROUND US We have many experiences with the fact that mathematics exists everywhere. Mathematics accompanies us in everyday situations. The outside world and mathematics are closely linked and cannot be separated from one another. We need it in our everyday life – let’s mention statics of buildings, mobile phones, MP3-players or energy distribution. Also withdrawing money from a bank machine would be impossible without Carl Friedrich Gauss (see [9]). Entering the PIN code in the terminal has to be encoded and subsequently decoded with the help of computer. This action is not possible without coding whose mathematical basis is in the theory of numbers. Mathematics teaches students how to think logically, how to look for the combinations when solving problems. It also teaches us to be accurate. Despite this fact, many people consider mathematics to be their

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lifelong problem. Primary, secondary as well as university teachers of mathematics frequently have to hear the questions from pupils and students: “Why do we need to learn mathematics?” “What kind of use has mathematics in everyday life?” These questions are especially surprising when the university students ask these questions. They should be clear about the importance of mathematics when they choose to continue in their studies of mathematics at the university. Therefore, to motivate students to study mathematics has become a difficult task for many teachers. They should know how to bring fun and enlightenment of mathematics to the class. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare future teachers of mathematics to teach pupils to discover the beauty of mathematics in life (for example in [8]). Application tasks serve as a good place, where the confrontations between a human and mathematics are predominantly realized. We can see the application of geometry everywhere, for example geometric patterns on mosaic pavements of European temples. When we look at some fabrics, we also find various geometric shapes – e.g. triangle, square, rectangle or circle. We can observe mirror reflection and look for similar shapes and axes of symmetry. We observe in many areas of our life an interesting mathematical object – a spiral. A group of congruent right-angled blocks forms the spiral. They are joined together longwise and truncated by the plane breadthwise. The plane has an intersection with just one edge of the block or it goes just through one of its vertices. The geometry is just the right topic when it is appropriate to use some suitable mathematical software to improve imagination in pupils. Do our pupils have a good imagination? Are they sufficiently prepared to understand the importance of geometry in practice? The answer is negative. Even students, future teachers of mathematics, have a problem with imagination. One of the reasons is the educational reform that began in 2008. Therefore, it is important and necessary to prepare future teachers of mathematics to

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teach pupils to discover the beauty of mathematics in our lives. 3 EDUCATIONAL REFORM Since 1 September 2008 the Content Reform of Education in Slovakia has been being implemented in accordance with the Act No. 245/2008 on education and training and on amendments and supplements to certain laws approved by Slovakian Parliament on 22nd May 2008 which replaced the original socalled Education Act of 1984. The Content Reform of Education means not only changing of the curriculum content, but also transformation of methods, conditions, forms and manners of education as well as its time organization associated predominantly with a teacher, and financial and legislative changes and sequence of steps. According Synek in [10] we can define the objectives of curricular reform education as follows: 1. general intentions: to create a modern, flexible educational system, to increase the educational level of the population, to create conditions for the development of higher cognitive abilities of pupils, to ensure the transition from factual learning to the development of key competencies, to make the school connection and the surrounding environment and society as a whole, to modify the goals of education and the content of educational programs to provide the graduate profile for their further continuation in the next their educational path or their application to the labour market. 2. specific intentions: to create the pedagogical documents at two levels, to improve literacy of pupils (see Kmeť in [4]). We can consider some art of education such successful only in the case, if on the base of predetermined requirements, we know what objectives were achieved by pupils. In the contemporary world the importance of the knowledge base has been stepped back and the emphasis has been put on key educational competencies. Therefore, a consistent focus on the output of the education presents one of the significant changes in the new process of education.

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Every school must prepare his own school educational program. Schools have the responsibility to adapt their specific school educational programs in the range of approximately 30%. That means that in 70% they must respect the State Educational Program. Compulsory content of education and training at schools are defined and specified by the state educational programs. The respective educational program represents a standard for schools but also an aid in the formation of the schools education and training programs. General education program should have replaced current curricula, and educational standards for primary and secondary schools. It should have become a mandatory pedagogical document. After the introduction of the State Educational Program ISCED 2, the number of lessons in individual subjects is determined by the framework curriculum. The content of education was divided into the following educational areas: language and communication, mathematics and working with information, man and nature, man and society, art and culture, man and values, man and the world of work, and health and exercise. The basic structure of the content of education was based on the key competences defined by the expert group of the OECD in the frame of the project DeSeCo (the acronym of Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations, see http://deseco.ch/). It corresponds to modern trends used in many developed countries. The success of the transformations in education depends on the fact how the reform of education and training will be accepted by teachers, school leaders and parents, and what importance will be assigned to the education and training by society. New resources can be beneficial for improving teaching and schools (see ). However, a good teacher remains a decisive factor in the reform. "Pedagogical work stands and falls on the motivation and skills of teachers. Innovation helpfulness and professionalism must be based on the qualitative new forms of education and training of teachers" (see [11]).

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We present in the following tables changes in the geometry curricula during the period 1997-2011: Table 1. Mathematics at lower secondary level from the school year 1997/1998.

Number Year of hours of Geometry per week study / per year angles, triangles, 5 5/165 constructions of triangle parallelograms, 6 5/165 trapezium circle, axial symmetry, 7 5/165 central symmetry, congruence, similarity, volume and surface of 8 5/165 cone and pyramid, constructions tasks translation, homothety, dilatation, 9 5/165 constructions tasks, goniometry of acute angle Table 2. Mathematics at lower secondary level from the school year 2003/2004.

Year of study

5

6

7

8

9

Number of hours Geometry per week / per year angles, triangles, 5/165 constructions of triangle perimeter and area 5/165 of a square and rectangle axial symmetry, triangle, 5/165 parallelograms, prisms trapezium, 4/132 congruent mappings similarity, volume and surface of three 4/132 dimensional objects, constructions tasks

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Table 3. Mathematics Mathematics at lower secondary level from the school year 2010/2011.

Number of hours Geometry per week / per year point, line, segment, quadrilateral, 5 3.5/115 perimeter of square, rectangle and triangle area of square and 6 4/132 rectangle, angles volume and surface 7 3.5/115 of cube and cuboid triangle, parallelograms, trapezium, sphere 8 4/132 volume and surface of prism, cylinder, pyramid and cone circle, axial and central symmetry, 9 4/132 similarity of geometry objects Strengthening the number of lesson subsidy of one subject was, however, addressed at the expense the number of lesson subsidy of another. For example, the increased number of lessons for foreign languages, or the creation of new subjects, had the effect of reducing the number of lessons in the subjects of natural science. We as teachers obtain now actual question: In which conditions can we create sufficient time space so that we can efficiently prepare our pupils for life? Since 2008, there are not precisely defined lesson subsidies of subjects for each class. Lesson plans, prepared by the State Pedagogical Institute (SPU)1, define the content of the curriculum and the total number of lessons for subjects for the 1st and 2nd grade of primary Year of study

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This organization creates in Slovakia school curricula and State Educational Programs ISCED 0, 1, 2 and 3. See http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics - explained/ index.php/International_Standard_Classification_of_ Education _ (ISCED). His webpage is www.statpedu. sk

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school, grammar school and secondary vocational schools the students must manage and complete. SPU has published on its webpage the framework curriculum for primary schools, depending on the language providing only the total number of lessons of Mathematics for 5. - 9. class of primary school - 19 lessons, what was a decreased of more than 20 percent. If we compare the mathematics curricula of 1997 and 2010, in terms of the content, the curriculum was reduced almost in all thematic units and there were shifts from lower to higher grades as well. The impact of the reduction of curriculum is thus evident in the field of geometry as well. In 1997 curriculum, approximately 200 lessons were allotted to geometry in the 5th to 9th grades. In the new curriculum (2010), there are about 170 geometry lessons in these grades. It means about a 15 percent decrease as compared to the previous number. It is important according [3] to note that within the meaning of the school law, the number of lessons is defined only for the whole stage of education and not according to grades, as it was in the old curriculum. The number of lessons in each class is managed by the schools themselves. Although we are aware that the framework curriculum is a living document that need adaption to the conditions, we think, that too frequent changes help not students. 4 MATHEMATICS AND EDUCATIONAL REFORM The President of the Slovak Republic, Andrej Kiska, in his Report on the state of the republic talked about the fact that the majority of higher university teachers noted for a long time the students come to universities worse prepared on average than it was in the past. The teachers of secondary schools claim the same, when presenting, they have to reduce their claims to the students in the course of two decades nearly by 30%. As we mentioned above, State education programme prescribes the compulsory subjects, which are included in various educational areas. These include

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according [1] the previously mentioned areas of mathematics and working with information and communication. Mathematics education is not an independent component of the education. Mathematics undoubtedly develops cognition of each pupil, and through its methods and means, is destined to become a tool for the development of the functions of distributing knowledge (see [12]). Most of the technical amenities have its roots in mathematical theories. In spite of these facts, mathematics still ranks among the least favourite and unattractive subjects for pupils. Let us ask the question: Why is it so? It is generally known that mathematics is rather unpopular and less interesting subject for pupils at primary schools. Today's pupils are used to sitting in front of the TV and listening opinions on mathematics, which are presented by famous media people. These people often do not have a problem, or even a courage to express their uncaring attitude to mathematics in public. Moreover, pupils are listening to these opinions from their parents. Due to their little experience, they are not always able process correctly this information. On the other hand, we have to say that the teachers who are unqualified often teach mathematics at the lower secondary level. The quality of teachers and their work has a direct impact on pupils’ way of learning, their attitudes towards learning, on their knowledge, as well as on their motivation to learn. The students need to have qualified teachers. What is the reason for their absence? Teachers, who are currently teaching, especially at primary schools, could be separated into two groups: a) some of them are convinced that their work has meaning and purpose and try to pass on their knowledge and understanding to students as much as possible, b) the others who could not find work in field of their interest or they have some other reasons.

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The second group of teachers is one of the reasons why there is a negative situation in teaching mathematics at primary schools. But at the same time we must remember that today`s teachers need to develop and complement their education constantly if they want to understand an educational process and also their pupils. Therefore a teacher is expected to use information and communication technologies as didactic devices in their everyday educational, training and teaching process. 5 MATHEMATICS AND MATLAB Every year, we can observed that secondary school graduates are coming to the university are worse and worse prepared for university studying. There is no difference between the graduates of grammar schools and other types of secondary schools. We can see changes in the preparedness of secondary school students for the study at the university. They come to the university with wrong attitudes towards mathematics as well as towards its studying. However, a number of studies have confirmed that one of the reasons is the fact that, ultimately, teachers themselves teach in the way they themselves were taught, what influences the attitudes of students to the subject. Their attitudes will evolve and change during their study. According [3] this negative trend has been confirmed by the results of nation-wide T9 tests in mathematics used in the years 2011-2016. Centrally implemented testing, which regularly carry out in Slovakia, is organized by the National Institute for Certified Educational Measurements in Bratislava (NICEM). It was stated in the final report published in 2012 that the pupils of the 9th grade of primary school had underdeveloped spatial imagination, they could not decompose composite geometric solid figures into simpler ones and they lacked the capability of planning a strategy of solving problems (see [3]). In spite of the fact that geometry is one of very interesting and useful part of mathematics and this part of education can be very helpful for pupils in their life. In

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addition, teaching geometry well can mean enabling more pupils to find success in mathematics. Not only a lot of them but also many of their teachers don`t like geometry as well. They find this subject very difficult because they often don`t understand it. Therefore, there can be a tendency to teach geometry by informing students of the properties associated with plane or solid shapes, requiring them to learn the properties and then to complete exercises which show that they have learned the facts. Moreover, it is another reason why pupils have basic visualization problems. As we mentioned earlier, imagination makes a big problem for pupils. Therefore, we are persuade that information and communication technology could help them. In teaching practice, we find various interesting programs that can be used in an educational process (GeoGebra, MATLAB, …). Most of them are connected with geometry teaching. Our university, which also prepares students of mathematics for their future teaching career, makes sure that its graduates go into practice armed with not only deep theoretical knowledge but also computer skills. We have a TAH license that provides teachers and students access to the full version of this programme. In 2011, within the Cultural and Educational Agency Project, we have purchased 25 school MATLAB programme licenses and verified the ability of pupils to work with the MATLAB programme at the selected primary and secondary schools. It is a reason why MATLAB is a part of the teacher training of future teachers of mathematics. MATLAB has become a part of a study plan as one of optional courses for all bachelor study programs of teaching academic, artistic and educational subjects in combination with mathematics in the second year of study indicated by 0-0-3. We are pleased to note that recently the students' interest in this subject has increased. This subject was completing by Seminar thesis. As we can see on the next figures, pupils had to make consultation about their problems how to draw the objects.

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Task: Draw and describe: ­ regular triangular, quadrilateral, pentagonal, hexagonal prism and pyramid – their net, show the position of perpendicular height, right triangle ­ make free parallel projection of these solids ­ fill in the colour front faces Problems: When pupils draw a triangle, square, rectangle or another polygon they did not realize that the figure have to ended in the same point from they started to draw. Another problem was to draw side faces – as we can also see below:

Figure 1. Version I

Figure 1a. Version Ia

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Figure 2. Version I

Figure 3a. Version Ia

Students had to pass several of consulting hours to obtain the correct solution of the task. As we could see in Table 1. – 3. some parts of geometry, but not only in geometry, at lower secondary level have been reduced. The teacher are not able to learn according to existing textbooks. The thing what they teach today is not mathematics anymore but it is only “counting”, inaccurate counting. The mathematics has been changed only to read with understanding the text of tasks. 60 % of all time is devoted to reading, 30% of all time is devoted to finding the correct result. It is not important to find correct way of solution but only to find the result. Moreover, 10% is devoted to formulating answers. The mathematics is no longer about accuracy. In addition, it is very sad, because student loose connection with reality.

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secondary schools, in Conference proceedings APLIMAT 2017 Bratislava: STU, pp. 596-605.

6 CONCLUSION We present in our contribution the changes in Slovakian curricula in the field of mathematics education and we also show some consequences from this process to the university students. Similar trends is possible to see also in science education (see [13]). Education passes through paradigms, which more or less respond to a broader context, the social and cultural atmosphere. It is therefore necessary to realize that education and training, like human society, are carried out in complex conditions. These conditions are constantly improving, resulting to their change. The above development is associated with both the past and the presence, but the future as well. Against the background of increasing connection among human beings and the present globalization problems, we should not forget the connections of processes of education and training with the rest of the world around us. It is connected with a wide range of problems requiring not only a beneficial solution towards the perspective of the man and his humanity, but also advice of innovation in education and training. It serves us ICT in mathematics education (see [5] and [15]). Remark: Supported by grant APVV-15-0378 “Optimization of educational material in mathematics on the base of the analysis of nowadays needs and abilities of the pupils in the younger school age”. REFERENCES [1] B. Bačová, and E. Leláková, Effects and consequences of the content reform of education in Slovakia with emphasis on university students' mathematical skills, in L. Gómez Chova, A. López Martínez, I. Candel Torres (Εds.), 11 th International Technology, Education and Development Conference INTED Valencia, Spain: IATED Academy, 2017, pp. 351-360. [2] D. Čábalová, Pedagogika. Publishing, 2011.

Praha:

Grada

[3] J. Gunčaga and M. Jurečková, Statistical analysis of the level of mathematics at Slovak lower

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[4] P. Kmeť, Súčasné premeny školského kurikula na Slovensku, in M. Chovanec, J. Sipko, G. Harčariková (Eds.), 5. Študentská vedecká konferencia, Prešov: University of Prešov, 2010, pp. 1150-1166. [5] L. Koreňová, What to use for mathematics in high school: PC, tablet or graphing calculator?, in International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education, 22 (2), 2015, pp. 59-64. [6] V. Lamanauskas, Reflections on Education, Šiauliai: Scientia Socialis Press, 2017. [7] A. Oldknow and R. Taylor, Teaching Mathematics using Information and Communications Technology. Continuum, London – New York, 2003. ISBN 0 – 8264 – 7059 – 9. [8] E. Partová, Vyučovanie matematiky pomocou moderných technológií. Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského, 2011. [9] D. J. Struik A Concise History of Mathematics. New York: Dover Publications Inc, 1987. [10] B. Synek, Áno reforme vzdelávania, in Učiteľské noviny, 3, 2007, pp. 12-13. [11] K. Rýdl, Proč a za jakých podmínek se má škola měnit, in Učitelské listy, 2, 2007, pp. 8-9. [12] D. Stachová, and B. Bačová, Changes of attitudes towards mathematics, in Mathematics XVI: prace naukowe Akademii im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie, Częstochowa, Poland: Akademia im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie, 2011, pp. 171-178. [13] A. Vančová, and M. Šulovská, Innovative trends in geography for pupils with mild intellectual disability, in CBU International Conference on Innovations in Science and Education (CBUIC) Prague: Central Bohemia University, Unicorn College, 2016, pp. 392-398. [14] E. Ch. Wittman, The Alpha and Omega of Teacher Education: Organizing Mathematical Activities, In: The Teaching and Learning of Mathematics at University Level: An ICMI Study, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands, 2001, p. 539—552. [15] K. Žilková, Axial symmetry in pre-primary and primary teachers education, in Conference

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proceedings APLIMAT 2016. Bratislava: STU, pp. 1164-1170.

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The Internal Medicine Department of Higher Educational Medical Institution Web-Site Organization and Structure Based on Modern Educational WebTechnologies Lopina Nataliia Kharkiv National Medical University, Department of Internal Medicine № 3 and endocrinology Assistant Professor, MD, PhD, 61022, Ukraine, Kharkiv, pr.Nauki 4 +38096-99-58-227 [email protected]

ABSTRACT Article describes modern trends in medical education. The main concept is that medical education is continuous and it is necessary to implement information web-technologies in continuous study process. Based on own experience, an approximate structure and organization of the Internet site of the Department of Internal Medicine of higher educational medical institution was discussed. Due to own experience all the structural components of the site and its content are characterized. The advantages of using the information space by the departments of internal medicine of higher educational medical institutions, web sites and information technologies in teaching are discussed. Based on the results of own experience in implementation of the information technologies and the department's website developing since 2013, the structural organization of the Internal medicine department site of higher educational medical institution and all its components are presented. The statistics of site visits from the moment of its existence was given.

KEYWORDS Continuous medical education, educational medical web-site, informational web-site content, web-site organization and structure, modern educational web-technologies

INTRODUCTION Modern medical education consists of several consecutive and continuous stages: • Basic medical education (pre-clinic and clinic);

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• Postgraduate medical education (residency or specialization); • Continuous professional development (advanced training of physicians). The main goal of continuous professional development is expand knowledge and skills. Despite some differences among world educational systems, there is a general trend in the structure, duration of studing, conditions of admission to medical institutions, education and admission to independent professional activities. At the same time, each model in medical education is built based on national characteristics and requirements of the health care system in each country. The system of continuous postgraduate education in this context now plays the most important, but at the same time, complex and contradictory role. Postgraduate education is not a continuation of the existing system of higher education or its complement, designed to compensate for the shortcomings of the undergraduate stage, but it is a special area with special relations of participants in the educational process, with special educational motivation. Therefore, this educational system is aimed to improve the theoretical and practical skills of graduates of higher medical educational institutions, increase the degree of their readiness for the independent professional activity, deep knowledge of their chosen specialty, share experience among colleagues of the relevant specialty. Modern medical education should be:

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

Based on the global approach and the principles of evidence-based medicine, knowledge of current classifications and guidelines (Scientific Society Guidelines based on Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) evidence-based medicine, Standards of medical care and guidelines for managing diseases);  Affordable;  Continuous;  Versatile;  Based on modern information and educational technologies;  Active (emphasis should be on activity, student autonomy, ability to adapt to changing conditions of professional activity);  Relevant to health care system’s needs. Adherence to these fundamental principles will ensure the success of mastering the educational material, contribute to the formation of a high level of intellectual and moral development of physicians, and ensure the competitiveness of the specialist and his integration into the world professional process, mastering communication techniques and adherence to the rules of bioethics. Thus, in the modern society, a specialist needs to study practically all his life to be in demand on the labor market. In addition, the old paradigm: a new one - «Education throughout life», should replace «Education for life". It is especially true for modern medical education, which requires constant improvement of professional knowledge, improvement of skills, and mastering of the latest technologies. Now the idea of "Education through life" leads to the need to search new methods of obtaining knowledge and technology training. Using Internet technologies and distance learning opens up new opportunities for continuous training of specialists and their retraining, making learning more accessible. Over the past decades, in all education systems significant structural changes have occurred, due to the development of scientific

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and technological progress and its increasing impact on all aspects of society. Currently, the process of informatization and internationalization of education takes place in educational content, and in studying methods, and in the forms of study organization. The appearance of webtechnologies in the first half of the 1990s became an obvious incentive for the development of information technology in education. In the second half of the 1990s, the formation of distance learning began, including Internet-based learning. The concept of open education has appeared as a system for providing educational services with the tools available in the informational and educational environment, chosen by the user and adapted to his specific needs. The computer is an integral part of modern people life. Nowadays, a computer and the Internet give great opportunities and are use in almost all spheres of life. The information webtechnologies an integral part in modern education. An informational and educational space is the environment in which interaction of all participants of the educational process is organized, in which the storage, exchange of various educational information with the help of modern information computer technologies and communication technologies is carried out. Modern education should be based on the following technologies: • Pedagogical; • Information; • Telecommunication. The usage of information computer technologies in education provides all forms and characteristics of learning, and interaction between the student and the institution: • home-study; • external student; • independent study; • external training, additions to the main course. Using information computer technologies in education provide:

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• Improving the organization of teaching, increasing the individualization of teaching; • Increasing the productivity of students' self-preparation; • Individualization of the work; • Accelerating replication and access to educational materials; • Increasing motivation to study; • Activation of the learning process, the possibility of involving students in research activities; • Providing flexibility in the learning process. 1

WEB-SITE OF INTERNAL MEDICINE DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATIONAL MEDICAL INSTITUTION

Informational and educational space of the department may be a part of the general information and educational space of the higher educational medical institution. The web-site of the department of internal medicine № 3 and endocrinology (http://vnmed3.kharkiv.ua) since 2013 was developed for creating an informational and educational space, developing and implementing the basic principles of modern medical education and the latest information technologies in the educational process in undergraduate and postgraduate education, which greatly increases the efficiency of the educational process and promotes the formation of professional competences. The site presents materials for a wide range of specialists in internal diseases cardiologists, endocrinologists, rheumatologists, pulmonologists, gastroenterologists. For each specialty, clinical guidelines are presented, problematic sections are created according to the classifications, laboratory diagnostics for each section of internal medicine are presented. The web-site study materials are necessary in the daily clinical practice of the physician. The site hosts and constantly updates articles and presentations on internal medicine, there

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are also presented on the web-site medical online calculators. The site of the department № 3 of internal medicine and endocrinology of Kharkiv National Medical University is a dynamic linked web pages based on WordPress platform with the pages programmed in the html, css, php languages. The department site has two subdomains with the established two platforms of the e-learning Management System / LMS – Moodle. The web-site includes free platform for webinars, which are installed on the dedicated server equipment. The site of the department№ 3 of internal medicine of Kharkiv National Medical University provides: Interactive communication of participants of the educational process; Information for public viewing; Information, access to which is possible only after entering the corresponding password or log in. The site of the clinical department can differ in its autonomy – it can be an independent site or a site as subdomain of the institution's site. The site of the clinical department can have a necessity of dedicated server or rental server (typically, for the installation of webinars equipment, web class or for the installation of a distance learning system (e-learning Management System / LMS)). The site of the clinical department can also have subdomains for installation of the LMS or other educational systems. The information content, LMS of the clinical department web-site may be available only to registered users or may be available partly to unregistered users. The clinical department site target audience can include applicants, students, graduates, teachers/trainers, clinical residents, doctors of philosophy, physicians with different specialization in internal medicine, patients, pharmacists. The clinical department site can improve cooperation and communion between all participants of educational process. The web-site forms also improving study cooperation and communion. There can be created the login form to enter the site, full version of education content, the

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form of information content search on the site, feedback form, feedback form with the possibility of attaching files (eg ECG, survey data for consultation, etc.), signature form for site updates, site news, form of the interactive on-line survey, questionnaire, registration form for webinars with the choice of the topic of the webinar, registration form for the conference, lectures, etc. Study cooperation and communion also provide based on department blog. The site of the clinical department can be connecting with other services department channel on YouTube, department page on Facebook, department journal, which improve cooperation and communion in study process. The site provides both training at the University and independent work of students, as well as advanced training of physicians with elements of distance education on postgraduate stage of education. 1.1 Web-Site Structure of Clinical Department of Higher Educational Medical Institution Due to own experience of educational website developing and administration of higher educational medical institution based on modern educational web-technologies the structure of the site of the clinical department № 3 of Internal Medicine and endocrinology of Kharkiv National Medical University may combine the following components [1-19]:  The web-organizer – the schedule, the newsletter, the blog for organizing educational, scientific, medical work;  The electronic library of publications (books, manuals, articles, theses of scientific and practical conferences);  The webinar service, the web-class;  The media Library (presentations, video lectures, flash cards);  The tools, resources of network testing and knowledge control;  The Interactive Learning Systems;  The Catalogue of educational materials for the specific target

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   

audience (students, residents, physicians, patients); The medical on-line calculators (the scale of automatic risk assessment, the laboratory indicators, etc.); The system of access to external medical web resources (links); The distance learning/e-learning Management System (LMS); The practical training simulators, simulators of clinical cases, webquests.

1.2 Web-Organizer - Schedule, Newsline, Blog for Organizing Educational, Scientific, Medical Work Web-interactive schedule contains all calendar events, important time points, deadlines, lectures and practical classes dates, conferences information with opportunity to detaile events. Newsletter, department blog contain the information on upcoming conferences and events, updates about the main problems of internal medicine in the specialized sections are presented. The Department blog can be structured according to the thematic headings for a specific target audience, as well as the ability to sort the information by the publication date. In addition, the department web-organizer may have a service for the automatic distribution of the messages, reminders, surveys, etc. to registered users. 1.3 Electronic Library of Publications The electronic library of publications of the department is present annually updating materials that are available for the education process: educational and methodical aids, books, manuals, guidelines, articles on specialized sections (cardiology, endocrinology, rheumatology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, etc.), abstracts for students, residents, and physicians. Catalogue of educational materials can be structured for a specific target audience (students, residents, physicians, patients) and structured in specific fields of internal medicine - educational

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materials in cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, connective tissue disoders. 1.4 Service for Webinars The website of the department has a service for hosting webinars. To enter a virtual training room a student needs to fill out a special form on the web-site. Webinars are widely used for raising the level of knowledge and they are very important for the postgraduate medical education, as a physician is able to improve his qualifications without interrupting medical activity. Currently it can be an opportunity to participate in a web conference with phones based on IOS, Android or different devices. The equipment for webinars can be integrated with site platform and placed on special server, and in this case the form to enter the web-class is on the department site web-page or it can be external equipment for webinars using the different internet resources, in such way the form to enter web-class is on the external web-resources. 1.5 Media Library Presentations)

(Video

Lectures,

Nowadays, the multimedia is the main component of information and education technologies, which significantly affect the efficiency of the educational process. Video lectures, presentations allow a huge number of students to listen lectures in their own pace of mastering the study material. The department's website presents video collections, presentations on the main problems of internal medicine, which are broadcasted both from the site of the department and from the channels hosted on Youtube. Especially effective is the association of one web-page of site department a problematic detailed article with a presentation/video lecture that clearly visualizes the material presented in the article. It makes the possibility to choose a convenient form of familiarisation with study materials for advanced training - a review of

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the presentation and if necessary, a more detailed and in-depth article's reading, which, of course, saves both time and increases the quality of learning of the material. To study the "Internal Medicine" it is possible to create the following flash cards:  text (both sides of the interactive flash card are text information, for example, the disease and drugs for its treatment, the drug and its side effects, the drug and indications for its usage);  combined:  image / text (for example, an electrocardiogram and its decoding, data on endoscopy, biopsy, radiography and possible diagnosis or description of visualization);  audio / text (for example, auscultation data of the lung, heart and possible diagnosis or description);  video / text (for example, dynamic visualization - coronary angiography and text visualization) Flash cards can be located on the file site space created by site platform special plugins (such as Qwizcards (online quizzes and flashcards), Flashcard (Plugin for WordPress), Flashcard Slider, Easy Flashcards), or created based on others tools (AnkiApp, StudyBlue, Flashcards+ by Chegg, Quizlet, StudyShack, Brainscape, Studies, iStudious, Flashcard Machine, Cram). Flash cards can be accessible with or without the opportunity to control individual progress after creating own profile. 1.6 Network Testing and Knowledge Control The main opportunity of controlling learning outcomes are tests. The department's website presents tests on some sections of internal medicine. Before passing on-line testing, it is suggested to fill out a form for results refistration of testing and to send the test results to students e-mail. Test tasks are presented both for controlling knowledge of students in training and exam mode, and for postgraduate medical education to improve knowledge and practical skills. Several types of tasks are used in tests:

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 Multiple choice (the students choose the answer to the questions from several options offered to them, and the questions may include one or several correct answers  Single choice (the students choose the answer to the questions from several options offered to them, but only one is correct);  True / false (the answer to the question, the student chooses between the two variants "True" and "False");  Matching (for each element of the responses of the first group it is necessary to match the element of responses from the second group);  Short answers (the answer to the question is a word or a short phrase; several correct answers are allowed with different estimates);  Numeric (the same as the short answer, only for performing computational operations, the numeric response may have a given interval of the maximum permissible deviation error from the correct value);  Computational (such a question suggests calculating the value of the formula: the formula is a template in which random values are added from each of the specified ranges for each test);  Submitted answers, embedded answers (there is a text directly inserted into short answers, numerical answers or multiple choice, as in the "workbook");  Essay (the student briefly describes his view to solve a problem). It can be used to solve situational tasks in internal medicine. Study tests and topics materials for exam preparation on clinical department site may be classificated by exam name (for example USMLE Step 1, USMLE Step 2, USMLE Step 3) and other principles. There are several different approaches to the organization of the test knowledge control at the clinical department of higher medical institution. The organization of the test can be based on the LMS platform, or using integrated site plugins in the platform of the site (TESTME WordPress, etc.). You also can create tests using special platforms with subsequent placement on the site file space (for example iSpring Quizmarker's), or testing ISBN: 978-1-941968-49-9 ©2018 SDIWC

organization by external services (SoGo Survey, Classmarker, EasyTestMaker or others). Tests can be public or closed to public viewing. 1.7 Interactive Learning Training Systems Interactive training systems on the department's website are provided by distance courses for students and physicians with the ability to consistently study topics within the course with knowledge management by conducting in-house testing after each topic. Multimedia tutorials can be presented on a CD-ROM or other memory drives for an autonomous use on personal computer or accessible via the Internet, in particular, on the department's website. The main stages of the developing multimedia educational resources can be represented as follows: 1. Pedagogical design: • development of the resource structure; • selection and structuring of educational material; • selection of illustrative and demonstration material; • development of a system of laboratory and independent works; • development of control tests. 2. Technical preparation of texts, images, audio and video information. 3. Combining the prepared information into a single project, creating a menu system, navigation, etc. 4. Testing and expert evaluation. 1.8 Catalogue of the Educational Materials for a Specific Target Audience (Students, Residents, Physicians) The site contains clinical guidelines, video lectures and presentations, articles on the main sections of internal medicine, database of clinical cases with the possibility of commenting. An archive of electrocardiograms (ECGs) was created with the possibility of their discussion by experts, and opportunity to place various ECGs on the

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department site. The department's blog also presents educational materials on the main nosologies of internal medicine with a convince structural navigation. 1.9 Medical Online Calculators and Risk Scales (Focus On Cardiology) The site presents medical online calculators for evaluation of cardiovascular risk, assessment of glomerular filtration rate (the rate of glomerular filtration by the CockroftGolta formulas, MDRD), body mass index, risk of bleeding and thromboembolic complications (HAS-BLED and CHA2DS2VASc), TIMI, QTc calculating, assessment of the risk factors for venous thromboembolism in hospitalized therapeutic patients (Padua scale in Kucher modification) and in surgical patients (according Caprini), diagnostic criteria for the Dutch Lipid Clinics Network Criteria, Simon Broom Criteria, MEDPED Criteria, SYNTAX score, GRACE score, PRECISE-DAPT, DAPT, calculator for assessment the index of left ventricular myocardial mass, calculators of conversion of units of measurement of laboratory analyzes and many others for physicians everyday professional activity. 1.10 The System of Access to the External Medical Web Resources For the convenience of interaction with the official site of the medical institution, the repository, various libraries, World Health Organization, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), International Classification of Diseases -10, the Cochrane library, PubMed, thematic associations in different medical spheres, the testing centers on the site there are a large number of links for the transition to external information and educational resources. 1.11 Distance Learning System/ Learning Management System (LMS)

E-

The system "Moodle" was chose and installed on the subdomain of the site of the

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department, which most fully corresponds to the modern educational process and allows to ensure its continuity, that also provides an opportunity for the placement of educational materials. Using the Moodle training management system allows:  multivariance of information representation;  interactive learning;  content structuring and its modularity;  creation of constantly active help system;  self-control of training activities;  building of the individual educational trajectories;  confidentiality of training;  compliance with the principles of successful learning. 1.11 Case Based Education On the department site are presented presentations of clinical cases, practical training simulators, the simulators of clinical cases and medical educational web-quests. Presentations of clinical cases detailed presentation of a clinical case with visualization of the results of the examination, review of clinical guidelines important for presented in case pathology, discussing the peculiarities of the clinical case, treatment outcomes, discussion, outstanding issues, prospects of research, etc. Practical training simulators are a combination of theoretical material on a specific topic with a large number of clinical situational tasks for it’s mastering. The simulators of clinical cases are the combination of a specific clinical case with logically related test tasks on the topic of the concrete clinical situation. Medical educational web-quests are the combinations of several topics in the medical discipline due to one problem task with the elements of the detective-style information game, with the construction of a branching scenario and a combination of theoretical material on several topics, with the

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improvement of practical skills and test simulators. Also clinical department site may have several supplements, for example site map, contact details, photo gallery and cooperation, history, collective or others. 2

THE WEB-SITE VISITORS OF THE INTERNAL MEDICINE DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATIONAL MEDICAL INSTITUTION

The site of internal medicine department and endocrinology №3 of Kharkiv National Medical University was created in 2013. According to the Google Analytics since that time site was visited by more than 126 943 unique users, which provide 235 099 connection sessions and observed 815 309 web-pages.

quality of education and gives a number of advantages for continuous professional development and professional development of physicians. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Author thanks the head of internal medicine department and endocrinology №3 of Kharkiv National Medical University Professor Larysa Zhuravlyova for the implementation education medical web-site to the internal medicine department study process, Boris Rogachov for creation of medical calculators on department web-site. REFERENCES LV, Lopina NA. Organizatsiya [1] Zhuravl'ova navchal'noho protsesu studentiv z riznymy kvalifikatsiynymy rivnyamy pidhotovky v KhNMU. Materialy XLVII navchal'no-metodychnoi konferentsii. In Zaprovadzhennya novitnikh metodiv navchannya na rivni pislyadyplomnoyi osvity; 2013; Kharkiv. p. 225. [2] Zhuravleva LV, Lopina NA Problemy ta perspektyvy rozvytku nauky na pochatku tretoho tysiacholittia u krainakh Yevropy ta Azii. Materialy XII Mizhnarodnoi naukovo-praktychnoi internet-konferentsii. Vnedrenie elementov distantsionnogo obucheniia s primeneniem innovatsionnykh veb-tekhnologii v nepreryvnoe meditsinskoe obrazovanie; 2015; PereiaslavKhmelnytskyi. p. 225-227.

Figure 1. The location of the visitors of the web-

site of internal medicine department and endocrinology №3 of Kharkiv National Medical University

Top-10 site visitors are from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, United States, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Netherlands and Uzbekistan (Figure 1). CONCLUSIONS Implementation the web-site of internal medicine departments of higher medical educational institutions based modern information and educational web technologies in the educational process in addition to traditional forms allows to improve the

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[3] Zhuravl'ova LV, Zhuravl'ova Anna, Lopina NA Aktualni pytannia yakosti medychnoi osvity (z dystantsiinym pid’iednanniam VM(F)NZ Ukrainy za dopomohoiu videokonferents-zv’iazku). Materialy XIII Vseukrainskoi naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii z mizhnarodnoiu uchastiu. Ykorystannia innovatsiinykh veb-tekhnolohii u bezperervnii pisliadyplomnii pidhotovtsi likariv. [Using innovative web technologies in continuous postgraduate education of doctors]; 2016; Ternopil: I. Horbachevsky Ternopil State Medical University, TDMU«Ukrmedknyha». p. 248–249. [4] Zhuravleva LV, Lopina NA Aktual'nye voprosy sovershenstvovaniia meditsinskoi pomoshchi i professional'nogo meditsinskogo obrazovaniia. Sbornik tezisov meditsinskogo foruma. Realizatsiia nepreryvnogo professional'nogo razvitiia vracha s pomoshch'iu informatsionno-obrazovatel'nogo saita klinicheskoi kafedry vysshego meditsinskogo uchebnogo zavedeniia; 2016; Belgorod: «Belgorod» NIU «BelGU». p. 59-61. [5] Zhuravleva LV, Lopina NA. Informatsionnoobrazovatel'noe prostranstvo v rabote klinicheskoi kafedry v kontekste realizatsii nepreryvnogo meditsinskogo obrazovaniia. metodicheskie

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rekomendatsii. Kharkov: KhNMU, Internal medicine №3; 2015. [6] Zhuravlova LV, Lopina NA Formuvannia suchasnoi kontseptsii vykladannia pryrodnychykh dystsyplin u medychnykh osvitnikh zakladakh. Materialy VIII Naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii, prysviachenoi 210-i richnytsi KhNMU ta 60-i richnytsi kafedry medychnoi ta bioorhanichnoi khimii. Suchasni informatsiino-osvitni veb-tekhnolohii v roboti klinichnoi kafedry; Kharkiv: KhNMU. p. 87-90. [7] Zhuravlova LV, Lopina NA [Modern information and educational web technologies in the graduation and postgraduate training of doctors according the higher education act]. Realizacija zakonu Ukrai'ny "Pro vyshhu osvitu" u vyshhij medychnij ta farmacevtychnij osviti Ukrai'ny (z distancijnym pid'jednannjam VM(F)NZ Ukrai'ny za dopomogoju videokonferenczv'jazku). Materialy Vseukrai'ns'koi' navchal'no-naukovoi' konferencii' z mi. Vykorystannja suchasnyh informacijno-osvitnih VEB-tehnologij v dodyplomnij ta pisljadyplomnij pidgotovci likariv u konteksti zakonu "Pro vyshhu osvitu"; 2015; Ternopil, Ukraine: Horbachevsky Ternopil State Medical University. p. 531–533. [8] Zhuravlova LV, Lopina NA, Lakhno OV., Tsivenko OI Suchasnyi stan ta perspektyvy pidhotovky likarivinterniv u Kharkivskomu natsionalnomu medychnomu universyteti. Materialy 43-i naukovo-metodychnoi konferentsii, prysviachenoi 50-richchiu zapochatkuvannia internatury v Kharkivskomu natsionalnomu medychnomu. Vykorystannia innovatsiinykh VEB-tekhnolohii na kafedri vnutrishnoi medytsyny №3 v bezperervnii pidhotovtsi likarivinterniv. Markovskyi VD, V’iun VV, Fomina LV, editors; 2017; Kharkiv, Ukraine: KhNMU. p. 40-42. [9] Zhuravleva LV, Lopina NA Elektronnoe obuchenie v nepreryvnom obrazovanii. Materialy II Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii. Distantsionnoe obuchenie s ispol'zovaniem VEB-tekhnologii v realizatsii nepreryvnogo meditsinskogo obrazovaniia; 2015; Ul'ianovsk, Russia: UlGTU. p. 257–267. [10] Zhuravleva LV, Lopina NA [The application of modern information and educational web-technologies in the work of clinical departments of the higher medical school]. Web-tekhnologii v obrazovatel'nom prostranstve: problemy, podkhody, perspektivy. Sbornik statei uchastnikov Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoprakticheskoi konferentsii. Ariutkina SV, Napalkov SV, editors. Primenenie sovremennykh informatsionnoobrazovatel'nykh veb-tekhnologii v rabote klinicheskoi kafedry vysshego meditsinskogo uchebnogo zavedeniia; 2015; Arzamas, Russia; N.Novgorod: Rastr-NN: Arzamasskii filial NNGU. p. 36-40. [11] Zhuravleva LV, Lopina NA Problemy ta perspektyvy rozvytku nauky na pochatku tretoho tysiacholittia u krainakh Yevropy ta Azii. Materialy ХХІІІ Mizhnarodnoi naukovo-praktychnoi internetkonferentsii. Otkrytye onlain kursy v rabote klinicheskoi kafedry vysshego meditsinskogo obrazovatel'nogo uchrezhdeniia; 2016; Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine; Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi. p. 148-150. [12] Zhuravleva

LV,

Lopina

NA

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Sovremennye

obrazovatel'nye WEB-tekhnologii v sisteme shkol'noi i professional'noi podgotovki. Sbornik statei mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii. Prakticheski-orientirovannyi podkhod v dodiplomnoi i poslediplomnoi podgotovke vracha obshchei praktiki po distsipline vnutrennie bolezni s pomoshch'iu interaktivnykh trenazherov. [Three component practicaloriented approach in undergraduate and postgradu; 2017; Arzamas, Russia. p. 517-520. [13] Zhuravl'ova LV, Lopina NA Suchasni pidkhody do vyshchoi medychnoi osvity v Ukraini (z dystantsiinym pid’iednanniam VM(F)NZ Ukrainy za dopomohoiu videokonferents-zv’iazku). Materialy XIV Vseukrainskoi naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii z mizhnarodnoiu uchastiu, prysviachenoi 60-richc. Trykomponentnyi praktychno-oriientovanyi pidkhid u dodyplomnii ta pisliadyplomnii pidhotovtsi likariv z dystsypliny «vnutrishni khvoroby» za dopomohoiu interaktyvnykh trenazheriv; 2017; Ternopil, Ukraine: I. Horbachevsky Ternopil State Medical University. p. 335–336. 14] Zhuravl'ova LV, Lopina NA [Meaning of educational web-quest as an important part of practically-oriented continuous postgraduate training of doctors]. Aktualni pytannia yakosti medychnoi osvity (z dystantsiinym pid’iednanniam VM(F)NZ Ukrainy za dopomohoiu videokonferents-zv’iazku). Materialy XIII Vseukrainskoi naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii z mizhnarodnoiu uchastiu. Znachennia osvitnoho vebkvestu yak vazhlyvoi skladovoi praktychnooriientovanoi bezperervnoi pisliadyplomnoi pidhotovky likariv.; Ternopil, Ukraine; 2016: I. Horbachevsky Ternopil State Medical University. p. 268-269. [15] Zhuravleva LV, Lopina NA [Informational content of medical education web-quest]. Sovremennye Webtekhnologii obrazovatel'nogo naznacheniia: perspektivy i napravleniia razvitiia. Sbornik statei uchastnikov Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii. Mironova SV, Napalkov SV, editors. Informatsionnyi kontent meditsinskogo obrazovatel'nogo veb-kvesta .; 2016; Arzamas, Russia: Arzamasskii filial NNGU. p. 160-164. [16] Zhuravleva LV, Lopina NA [Meaning of educational web-quest as an important part of practically-oriented continuous training of doctors].Elektronnoe obuchenie v nepreryvnom obrazovanii. Materialy III Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii. In Zhuravleva LV, Lopina NA. Znachenie obrazovatel'nogo WEB-kvesta kak vazhnoi sostavliaiushchei prakticheski orientirovannoi nepreryvnoi professional'noi podgotovki vrachei .;2016; Ul'ianovsk, Russia. p. 720–730. [17] Zhuravlova LV, Lopina NA Symuliatsiine navchannia v systemi pidhotovky medychnykh kadriv. Materialy L navch.-metod. konf., prysviachenoi 212-i richnytsi vid dnia zasnuvannia KhNMU. In Trenazher vyznachennia kardiovaskuliarnoho ryzyku v dodyplomnii ta pisliadyplomnii pidhotovtsi likariv zahalnoi praktyky yak nova forma ovolodinnia praktychnymy navychkamy; 2016; Kharkiv, Ukraine: KhNMU. p. 4951. [18] Zhuravlova LV, Lopina NA Orhanizatsiia navchalnoho protsesu studentiv z riznymy kvalifikatsiinymy rivniamy

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pidhotovky v KhNMU. Materialy XLVII navchalnometodychnoi konferentsii. In Zaprovadzhennia novitnikh metodiv navchannia na rivni pisliadyplomnoi osvity; 2013; Kharkiv, Ukraine: KhNMU. p. 225. [19] Zhuravlova LV, Tsivenko OI, Lakhno OV, Lopina NA Aktualni pytannia linhvistyky, profesiinoi linhvodydaktyky, psykholohii i pedahohiky vyshchoi shkoly. Zbirnyk statei I Vseukrainskoi naukovopraktychnoi konferentsii z mizhnarodnoiu uchastiu. In Novatsii u vykladanni vnutrishnikh khvorob pry pidhotovtsi likariv na kafedri vnutrishnoi medytsyny №3 Kharkivskoho natsionalnoho medychnoho universytetu. [Innovation in teaching of internal medicine in preparation of doctors at the department of internal medicine №3 in Kharkiv national medical university]; 2016; Poltava, Ukraine. p. 66-70.

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The literature review of the evaluation of blended learning

1

Wenqian Wang1, Mingzhang Zuo2 and Yang Yang3 Educational Information Technology Collaborative Innovation Center, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China, 2,3 School of Educational Information Technology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China [email protected]

ABSTRACT Blended learning is a hybrid teaching method which combines the advantages of both online learning and traditional face-to-face learning, which also gives a balance between classroom and online learning environment. The evaluation of blended learning effectiveness is becoming an increasingly important research theme. However, few studies has been done for its systematical evaluation. In order to provide a wider and more standard evaluation method, we performed a systematic review. This paper divided the evaluation dimensions into four parts adapted from the SCOPe evaluation framework, hoping to give references for the further researches on the evaluation of blended learning.

KEYWORDS Blended learning; literature review; classroom evaluation; teacher evaluation

1 INTRODUCTION As the combination of traditional face-to-face learning and flexible online learning, blended learning has its unique superiority in both flexible time, high effectiveness and ubiquitous space. This style of learning is normally defined as the integration of traditional classroom methods with online activities (termed “e-learning”) [1-3]. According to the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, blended learning courses are becoming increasingly significant, with ICTs being developed to complement, not replace, traditional forms of learning [4]. Actually, blended learning is not merely a random hybrid of traditional and online learning. It suits the situation that the number ISBN: 978-1-941968-49-9 ©2018 SDIWC

of the students are high, the resources it provides can give students more chances and opportunities to learn better compared with online or face-to-face learning, and in order to improve the effectiveness of course [5]. Some researches have been done about the evaluation of blended learning, which is very crucial for us to implement and further improve it. So far, there has been almost no serious examination reporting the students’ experiences [6] or the outcomes obtained with this type of learning [7-9]. As we know, evaluation is more than significant link among all the processes of the teaching. And we need different evaluation dimensions according to the respectively research purposes.With the desire to provide comprehensive evaluation dimensions, we investigates previous studies and classifies the evaluation dimensions as four parts adapted from the SCOPe evaluation framework by Wegmannn and Thompson [10]. 2 FOUR EVALUATION DIMENSIONS 2.1 Evaluation dimension 1: platform using in blended learning Online platform is a very important section in learning. It can upload learning materials, and record students’ data etc. And it plays a significant role in online learning. Zhang and Wang [11] designs a blended learning mode based on Moodle platform, which validated the effectiveness of the combination of traditional classroom and advanced educational platform. Modular object-oriented Dynamic Learning Environment is a modular package for web-based courses or websites. It

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is a global development project to support the education framework of social constructivism. Moodle is a free, open source software (under the GNU public license), meaning that Moodle is copyrighted, but you have extra freedom. You are free to copy, use, or modify Moodle, provided you agree to provide code

to others without modifying or removing the original copyright and license, and to apply similar copyright to derivative works. However, Moodle seems more like a learning management system, which mainly operated by teachers, leading to a lack of the motivation of students.

Table 1. Comparison of platforms used in the blended learning Platform MOOC (eg.Coursera and edX)

Web-Based Learning Platform

Cloud computing platforms

Advantages 1) One of the characteristics is bringing disruptive innovation [12] into the educational system. 2) It happens whenever teachers adopt new technologies and innovative practices [13]. 3) Available to anyone with internet access. MOOC are considered a way to allow access to teaching and to democratize learning throughout life [14]. 4) Students do not need to attend physical institutions to have classes nor to pay any tuition [15]. 5) Creating opportunities for knowledge socialization [16]. 1) A highly valuable source of information . 2) Can be used as an effective teaching tool, owing to its ability to disseminate educational information in accordance with the scope and objectives of certain curriculums . 3) Present teaching contents through interactive exercises and multimedia materials. 1) Reduces the need for each user to have expensive individually held computing resources that become idle when not needed or which is impractical to store at the users’ geographical location. 2) The environment available online (e.g.Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Google App Engine, Go Grid) allows users to distribute computing tasks across many nodes.

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Limitations 1) Not all educational institutions can afford or are willing to make such investments, as open education are not often part of official programs at universities [17].

Application Eg.Airton Zancana et al. use the term MOOC platforms for understanding that they are entities online education websites [18] that provide a storage system, allowing the management of the entire life cycle of a course and making MOOCs available to a group of participants.

Lacks of specific evaluation tools to effectively evaluate these web-based learning environments, it has been difficult for users(i.e.teachers/student -s/ domain experts) to select the most suitable web-based learning applications among the many samples. Highly complex

Eg. Funda Dağ [19] determine the language equivalence and the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Web-Based Learning Platform Evaluation Scale, which provide a more useful and reliable method to evaluate web-based learning. It is demonstrated how to compute the expected revenue loss over a finite time horizon in the presence of all these model characteristics through the use of matrix analytic methods and illustrated how to use this knowledge to make frequent short term provisioning decisions – transient provisioning[20].

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LMS systems (eg.Moodle,Bl ackboard and Sakay)

1) Control the participants and the distribution of course content. 2) Handle thousands of students simultaneously accessing the environment [21].

1) Copyright and cost policies, exclusivity and ownership of course participants’ data [22]. 2) They present scalability problems because they were not designed to support access by thousands of students at the same time [23]. 3) Papachristos et al. [21] reported that another serious problem was the lack of availability of courses in foreign languages, which did not give any opportunity to attract international students.

Autonomic Computing

1) self-properties: self-configuration self-optimization self-healing self-protection 2) self-management [26]

High demands for its usage.

From the table above, we can see that every material has its own merits as well as disadvantages. There is no such perfect platform. We have to choose the suitable platform according to our evaluation purpose and other requests. 2.2 Evaluation dimension 2: classroom evaluation As a typical formative evaluation, classroom evaluation is closely related to school teaching and student learning. Studies have shown that it is important to promote the student’s learning through the class evaluation, rather than the external test, which is to be achieved, and to be able to improve learning by using an effective class evaluation. And it turns out that there is still a lot of room for improvement in classroom evaluation [28]. The research methods based on classroom observation include classroom teaching mode ISBN: 978-1-941968-49-9 ©2018 SDIWC

1) Zhang and Wang [11] designed a blended learning mode based on Moodle platform, which validated the effectiveness of the combination of traditional classroom and advanced educational platform. 2) Wilen-Daugenti [24] interchanges the terms CMS and LMS. 3) Nikolaidou et al [25] describe the usage of Open eClass in Harokopio University and conducted an evaluation study of the LMS with the participation of students, instructtors and infrastructuretechnology specialists to evaluate the ecosystem of blended learning. Huergo and Granda Candás [27] design a selfmanaged multimedia distribution platform for developing synchronous elearning activities, providing an efficient data delivery service and minimizing the required human intervention.

analysis and classroom teaching interactive quality analysis. 2.2.1 Analysis methods of interactive quality of classroom teaching Based on the Social Interaction Model, Ned Flanders [29], the famous American scholar, proposes the Flanders Interaction Analysis System (FIAS), which is the earliest published and mature interactive analysis system. Specific to the characteristics of language teaching, on the basis of Flanders Interaction Analysis System (FIAS), Moskowitz proposed a FLINT (Foreign Language Interaction, an adaptation of FIAS). In China, there are also some researchers getting interested in this field. From the implementation concept of the new curriculum reform and the application of Information Technology, Gu and Wang [30] further improved FIAS and formed an Information Technology-based Interaction 22

Analysis System (ITIAS) based on Information Technology. This system pays more attention to students’ behaviors in classroom teaching so as to truly understand students’ learning behavior in class.

There are the advantages and limitations about FIAS as the following table 2.

Table 2. The advantages and limitations about FIAS Advantages FIAS makes a quantitative analysis of the teacher-student speech interaction in classroom teaching.

A comprehensive understanding and analysis of classroom teaching can be made by using quantitative data to analyze and reflect teachers’ teaching and the description of teaching quality obtained by combining classroom observation. It preserves a certain amount of information regarding the sequence of behavior [31].

Limitations We can’t truly understand the learning behavior of middle school students by paying more attention to the behavior performance of teachers in classroom teaching (seven categories) and ignoring the behavior performance of students in classroom teaching (two categories). Information technology being an indispensable element in classroom teaching, FIAS cannot reflect the interaction of it.

Improvements made by Gu Add participation.

FIAS also has some deficiencies in the concrete operation. Because sampling codes are required every three seconds at observation sites, and the operation is difficult.

Interaction with technology

2.2.2 Classroom quality evaluation “Education evaluation” was first proposed by Tyler of Ohio state university in 1929, who argued that “education evaluation is essentially a process of determining the degree of curriculum and syllabus to achieve education goals” [32].Classroom teaching quality evaluation is an important part of education evaluation, and it plays increasingly

Questioning thinking

and

critical

significant role in the teaching link. The research of classroom teaching quality evaluation includes two aspects. The one is about the evaluation of students’ studies while the other one is the evaluation of teachers’ teaching activities. These two aspects are highly independent and interrelated. The current researches on classroom teaching quality evaluation mainly focus on the following aspects:

Table 3. Classroom quality evaluation dimensions Aspects Evaluation methods

Evaluation content Subject of evaluation Comprehensive evaluation

Main focus 1) It emphasizes the application of modern information technology and modern statistical technology on the basis of original qualitative research. 2) It emphasizes the application of quantitative methods in classroom teaching quality evaluation. 3) It expects to realize the scientific and objective evaluation of classroom teaching quality. According to the teachers’ classroom teaching, the scientific evaluation index is constructed, and the unified evaluation index is applied to the evaluation of classroom teaching quality. Focuses on the research on student evaluation of teaching, and discusses the significance of student evaluation of teaching to realize the effectiveness of classroom teaching evaluation. The monographs of education evaluation are systematically based on the whole education evaluation, including the research on the classroom teaching quality evaluation. These works have important reference value for the research on the classroom teaching quality evaluation The other is to combine the evaluation idea, evaluation principle, evaluation method and

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evaluation content for macro analysis.

From the aspects of researches above, Yang and Nie [33] defined classroom teaching quality evaluation as a multi-evaluation subject with evaluation qualification. According to objective and accurate evaluation indexes, teachers’ classroom teaching activities are evaluated by using scientific and rational evaluation methods, so as to achieve personal career development of teachers and improve classroom teaching quality. 2.2.3 Course satisfaction The University Student Course Experience Questionnaire (SCEQ) and the DEEWR/ GCA Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), are designed to collect quantitative and qualitative data about students’ perceptions of the quality of teaching and learning in their degree courses [34]. And SCEQ is adapted from CEQ by adding the factor of students. During the test, each student should give response to the suitable item in the statement of S/CEQ Factor, which using 5 point Likert Scale to link to their extent to which they agree or disagree with the statement of the items. And in some parts of the questionnaire, students are requested to provide their comments on the experience and theory improvement during the course. This questionnaire combines quantitative and qualitative evaluation method thus collecting both quantitative and qualitative data to help assess students’ learning satisfaction. There are some applications of SCEQ. Students’ perceptions surveys of university course experiences and learning environment have been part of quality evaluation in higher education in the western world, especially Australia and UK for the purpose of accountability, learning improvements or both.

In Africa, particularly in Nigeria, it has not been so [35]. For example, since 1993, in countries like Australia, the Graduate Career Council of Australia has included the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) [36, 37] as part of its annual Graduate Destination Survey for the improvement of the quality of teaching in the Australian higher education sector. Even UK has also developed a similar national survey. Apart from these, the results of the CEQ are used widely by a range of stake holders, including the Australian Commonwealth Government, researchers in higher education, prospective students and tertiary institutions via the Good Universities bulletin. 2.3 Evaluation dimension 3: teacher evaluation 2.3.1 Overview of teacher evaluation For the past few years, teacher evaluation has been attached great importance. The most widely used methods of teacher assessment is standardized paper-and-pencil examinations and on-the-job ratings by supervisors. Because the deflects of paper-and-pencil tests, including a lack of accurate measurement properties, low predictive validity for student learning and halo effects, Shannon came up with an alternative to the paper-and-pencil approach. Besides of that, there have also been several recent reviews of teacher evaluation process in which the authors identified from six to twelve general approaches to teacher evaluation [38-42]. There are three aspects they sought, including teacher competence, teacher performance (teacher effectiveness). Medley offers useful definitions of four terms often treated as synonyms:

Table 4. The definition of four synonyms used in teacher evaluation Term Teacher competency

Definition It refers to any single knowledge, skill, or professional value position, the possession of

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Teacher competence Teacher performance Teacher effectiveness

which is believed to be relevant to the successful practice of teaching. Competencies refer to specific things that teachers know. It refers to the repertoire of competencies a teacher possesses. Competence is a matter of the degree to which a teacher has mastered a set of individual competencies. It refers to what the teacher does on the job rather than to what she or he can do (that is, how competent she or he is). It refers to the effect that the teacher's performance has on pupils. Depends not only on competence and performance, but also on the responses pupils make.

2.3.2 Methods of teacher evaluation (1) Teacher interviews One standardized interview method developed and used recently is the Teacher Perceiver Interview. However, there are limited research to verify the effectiveness. (2) Competency tests By far the most widely used competency test has been the National Teacher Examination (NTE). Harris estimated that 75,000 teacher candidates in 24 states and 311 school districts take the exam each year. In some states and school districts, passing the NTE is a condition of employment [43]. There are also a number of states and locally developing teacher examinations. Most prominent in the literature is the Georgia Teacher Area Criterion Referenced Test, which assesses a prospective teacher’s knowledge of a specific curriculum area. Passing this exam is a precondition of certification throughout the state [38, 40, 44] [43]. Similar tests have been developed in Florida, South Carolina, Dallas, Houston, Texas, Montgomery County, and Maryland. (3) Indirect measures

Classroom observation reveals “a view of the climate, rapport, interaction, and functioning of the classroom available from no other source” [47].This evaluation method has the advantages of seeing teachers in action and within the context of their schools. However, even proponents of classroom observation recognize its limitations. Observer bias, insufficient sampling of performance, and poor measurement instruments can threaten the reliability and validity of results [39, 40]. (5) Student ratings Student ratings are another form of “classroom observation”—they measure observed performance from the student’s rather than the administrator’s point of view. This method is inexpensive with a high degree of reliability, usually ranging from .8 to .9 and above, with some studies finding a modest degree of correlation between student ratings of teachers and students achievement. On the other hand, questions about the validity and utility of student ratings limit their acceptance as primary policy instruments for teacher evaluation [39, 48]. (6) Peer review

King [45] argues that indirect measures, especially professional commitment as expressed in extra classroom activities, ought to be a supplementary source of evaluation data. Schalock [46] identifies two promising lines of research on teacher characteristics. But the two lines haven’t been put into practice of teacher evaluation.

The review process is a broader spectrum of performance, encompassing not only performance in the classroom and other teaching behavior as exhibited by assignment and grading practices. Because the method is more open to divergent criteria for assessing performance and is not subject to direct administrative control, it is not generally recommended for use as the basis of personnel decisions [39, 49].

(4) Classroom observation

(7) Students achievement

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Students achievement can be measured in many ways: comparing student test scores to a national norm; comparing test score gains with those of a comparable class; net gains over time, and so forth [39]. Studies of the reliability of student test scores as measures of teaching effectiveness consistently indicate that reliability is quite low, that is, the same teacher produces markedly different results in different situations, calling into question the use of such teacher effectiveness scores as an indicator of teacher competence.

Self-evaluation is becoming an increasingly important link during evaluation process. And the combination of self-evaluation and individual goal-setting may promote selfreflection and motivation toward change and growth. A teacher can use data coming from any technique-student or peer ratings, selfassessment measures of students achievement, and so forth, to make judgments about his or her own teaching. Thus doing some adjustments to improve the classroom performance. 2.3.3 Models of teacher evaluation There are the five common used models of teacher evaluation.

(8) Faculty self-evaluation

Table 5. Five models of teacher evaluation Model Mutual Benefit Evaluation

Management by Objectives Evaluation

The Georgia evaluation system

Details

Author

Commons

Step 1: The school board and administration Step 2: A diagnostic evaluation is performed to assess each teacher's present status the standards. Step 3: With the cooperation of the teacher, the evaluator sets job targets (three to five are recommended) for the teacher's performance improvement. Step 4: After a specified time, the teacher is reevaluated and new job targets are set Step 1: The evaluator and teacher jointly establish individual objectives, an action plan, and measurable progress indicators Step 2: A teachers’ responsibilities and learning goals are set by the responsible school authority. Step 3: The teacher’s action plan is monitored through diagnostic rather than summative observations. Step 4: The observation results are assessed by the evaluators who then meet with the teacher to discuss progress and to set additional objectives. 1) The Georgia system requires each teacher to possess professional knowledge and training and to demonstrate mastery of 14 teaching competencies. 2) Each prospective teacher must pass a criterion-referenced test as a precondition to receiving a 3-year nonrenewable certificate. To receive recertification, sometime within 3 years a teacher must prepare a portfolio of lesson plans, test

Manatt

(a) goal-setting (b) teacher involvement in the evaluateon process (c) centralized teaching standards and criteria (d) straddle the competency-based and outcomes-based evaluation philosophies

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Redfern

Used in Salem, Oregon

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Evaluation program used in Bedford

papers, and other teaching documents for a team of trained evaluators. 3) In addition, he or she must pass a classroom evaluation based on the Teacher Performance evaluation Instrument (TPAI). This model assures that criteria for evaluating an experienced teacher will be different from those used to make the original employment decision or for evaluating new teachers. This evolving model is unstructured and highly dependent on teacher self-evaluation and joint efforts between teacher and evaluator. Similarly, the New Hampton, Iowa, evaluation program is based on a belief that "no single model [of instruction will result in effective learning..." and that "an evaluation system must respect the uniqueness of each individual staff member" [40].

Used in Bedford

2.4 Evaluation dimension 4: students’ evaluation

their knowledge level in the domain or how much knowledge they gained.

2.4.1 Self evaluation

Compared with other methods of evaluation, self-evaluation is the most directive way to evaluate the behavior and the information they have required. Self-reported method is one of the methods of self-evaluation, which is interpreted by the individuals themselves. One strength of data from this category may be that self-report inventories can be efficient to administer and score.

Self-assessments of knowledge are learners’ estimates of how much they know or have learned about a particular domain. Selfevaluations offer the potential to reduce the burden of developing tests to determine whether the desired knowledge has been gained as a result of participation in a course or training intervention [50]. Sitzmann [51] defines self-evaluation as a process of the evaluations learners making about their current knowledge levels or improvements in their knowledge levels in a particular domain. There are some practical evaluation examples. Carrell and Wilmington [52] asked students rate the extent their competence on six dimensions of interpersonal communication in a communication course, an evaluation of knowledge level. In contrast, Le Rouzie, Ouchi, and Zhou [53] asked employees to take organizational training courses to rate the extent to which they acquired information that was new to them during training, an evaluation of knowledge gain. Thus, the main research focuses of self-evaluation are whether and how learners were asked to rate

But there are also some limitations. In 1750, Benjamin Franklin proposed that we have three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know oneself. What’s more, Darwin [54] noted, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than knowledge.” The conclusion mentioned above is consistent with research findings by Kruger and Dunning [55] that some people routinely overestimate their capabilities. Similarly, accrediting bodies, such as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, require schools to provide evidence of student learning as part of the accreditation process and recommend directly assessing learning rather than relying on student self-evaluations [56]. 2.4.2 Peer evaluation

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Topping [57] defines peer evaluation as an arrangement in which individuals consider the amount, level, value, worth, quality, or success of the products or outcomes of learning of peers of similar status. The varying nomenclature adopted by different authors in the literature can prove confusing and needs careful scrutiny. Lu and Law [58] focuses on the effect of peer rating and peer feedback on the learning results of the evaluator and the assessed. Peer rating refers to the use of indicators in peer appraisal to judge the rating of peer works. Peer review feedback refers to the appraiser's comments and feedback on his or her work. The conclusion is that the quality of the questions or Suggestions written by the evaluator can predict the quality of the completed work. For the evaluators, getting positive emotional feedback can affect the quality of their work. In view of the activity design method, Hovardas [59] and Korfiatis put towards that the procedures of combination of peer and expert, combination of qualitative and quantitative, and combination of peer and expert are composed of learners and experts. At the same time, the evaluator needs to provide written feedback to the team on each criterion. The interviewees can ask peers or experts to give specific explanations for their opinions through online chatting tools. However, Zundert [60] believes that although there are many studies on peer evaluation at present, the effects of which factors affect peer evaluation activities still need to be further analyzed. So, he applies peer evaluation strategy to hybrid teaching in colleges and universities, and designs online peer evaluation learning activities, focusing on three aspects: first, the influence of peer evaluation activities on learners' understanding of knowledge and the quality of works. Secondly, pay more attention to whether there are differences in the influence of peer mutual evaluation on learners of

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different learning styles, that is, learners with certain characteristics are more likely to gain from peer mutual evaluation. Finally, learners’ attitude towards peer evaluation and improvement suggestions should be put forward. Compared with self-evaluation, peer evaluation is reported more reliable. Stefani [61] found peer evaluation more reliable. Saavedra and Kwun [62] found outstanding students were the most discriminating peer assessors, but their self-evaluations were not particularly reliable [63]. 3 RESULTS Blended learning is a mixture of online and face-to-face learning. In the literature, blended learning is also known as ‘hybrid learning’ or the ‘flipped classroom’. Although there has been some debate about an exact definition [64], Boelens, Van Laer, DeWever, and Elen [65] define blended learning as “learning that happens in an instructional context which is characterized by a deliberate combination of online and classroom-based interventions to instigate and support learning” (p.5). During the whole process of the blended learning, the evaluation link is becoming increasingly important because it provides us direction and help us adjust the whole processes. One of the purposes of the evaluation is to improve our learning and find out the questions and to reflect and adjust ourselves. In general, the evaluation of mixed learning includes the online data and the summative or formative evaluation, which is based on the evaluation of learning effect. The previous related papers concentrate more on measuring course outcome, learner satisfaction and students engagement. In order to provide a more systematic and comprehensive method to evaluate the blended learning, we reviewed quite a lot papers and we divided the evaluation dimensions into four parts adapted from the SCOPe evaluation framework by Susan J. Wegmannn and Kelvin Thompson [10]. And we list the corresponding research according

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to the classification. Compared with the previous research, we add student and teacher evaluation. This change can better enable students to recognize the deficiencies in the learning process and improve the learning methods. Teachers can clearly know the shortcomings in the process of imparting knowledge. By evaluating the classroom, teachers can better promote the course redesign. The evaluation of classroom, teacher, student and platform can better promote the teaching effect of mixed learning and the improvement. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We want to appreciate the financial support from The National Education Sciences Planning Project (ACA170010). We would like to express our sincere and heartfelt thanks to the editors and reviewers. REFERENCES [1] D. R. Garrison and H. Kanuka, "Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education," Internet & Higher Education, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 95-105, 2004. [2] C. R. Graham, Blended learning systems: Definition, current trends, and future directions, 2006. [3] J. Macdonald, Blended Learning and Online Tutoring: Planning Leaner Support and Activity Design, Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008. [4] P. Forer, "Blended Learning: The Perceptions of First-year Geography Students," Journal of Geography in Higher Education, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 77-89, 2010. [5] R. T. Osguthorpe and C. R. Graham, "Blended learning environments: Definitions and directions," Quarterly review of distance education, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 227-33, 2003. [6] R. Sharpe and G. Benfield, "The Student Experience of E-learning in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature," Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry, vol. 284, no. 1-2, pp. 19-24, 2005. [7] S. Alexander, "An Evaluation of Innovative Projects Involving Communication and Information Technology in Higher Education," Higher Education Research & Development, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 173-183, 1999. [8] C. Dowling§, J. M. Godfrey§ and N. Gyles, "Do hybrid flexible delivery teaching methods improve accounting students' learning outcomes?," Accounting Education, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 373-391, 2003.

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[9] D. H. Lim and M. L. Morris, "Learner and Instructional Factors Influencing Learning Outcomes within a Blended Learning Environment," Journal of Educational Technology & Society, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 282-293, 2009. [10] S. Wegmann and K. Thompson, SCOPi-ing Out Interactions in Blended Environments, 2014. [11] W. R. Dong, Y. H. Chen, Y. Chen, X. X. Qiu, H. H. Wang, L. Zhang, T. G. Hong, L. I. Zhen-Lin, L. Zhang and W. Wang, "Blended Learning Design Based on MOODLE Platform——Taking “The Skin” as an Example," Medicine Teaching in University, 2018. [12] J. D. Comeau and T. L. Cheng, "Digital "tsunami" in higher education: Democratisation Movement towards Open and Free Education," Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 198-224, 2013. [13] S. Iqbal, X. Zang, Y. Zhu, Y. Y. Chen and J. Zhao, "On the impact of MOOCs on engineering education," IEEE International Conference on Mooc, Innovation and Technology in Education, pp. 101-104, 2014. [14] J. P. Meyer and S. Zhu, "Fair and Equitable Measurement of Student Learning in MOOCS: An Introduction to Item Response Theory, Scale Linking, and Score Equating," Research & Practice in Assessment, vol. 8, pp. 26-39, 2013. [15] Y. Chen, "Investigating MOOCs through Blog Mining," International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 85106, 2014. [16] L. Stuchlí ková and A. Kósa, "Massive open online courses - Challenges and solutions in engineering education," IEEE International Conference on Emerging Elearning Technologies and Applications, pp. 359-364, 2013. [17] I. Claros, R. Cobos, E. Guerra, J. D. Lara, A. Pescador and J. Sánchez-Cuadrado, "Integrating open services for building educational environments," Global Engineering Education Conference, pp. 1147-1156, 2013. [18] P. Pernias Peco and S. Lujan-Mora, "Architecture of a MOOC based on CourseBuilder," International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training, pp. 1-8, 2013. [19] F. Dag, "The Turkish Version of Web-Based Learning Platform Evaluation Scale: Reliability and Validity Study," Kuram Ve Uygulamada Egitim Bilimleri, vol. 16, no. 5, 2016. [20] B. Patch and T. Taimre, "Transient Provisioning and Performance Evaluation for Cloud Computing Platforms: A Capacity Value Approach," Performance Evaluation, vol. 118, 2017. [21] D. Gillet, "Personal learning environments as enablers for connectivist MOOCs," International

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[52] L. J. Carrell and S. C. Willmington, "A comparison of self‐report and performance data in assessing speaking and listening competence," Communication Reports, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 185191, 1996. [53] V. Le Rouzie, F. Ouchi and C. Zhou, "Measuring" What People Learned" versus" What People Say They Learned": Does the Difference Matter?," 1999. [54] C. Darwin, The descent of man and selection in relation to sex, Murray, 1888. [55] J. Kruger and D. Dunning, "Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated selfassessments," Journal of personality and social psychology, vol. 77, no. 6, pp. 1121, 1999. [56] A. t. A. C. S. o. Business, "AACSB assurance of learning standards: An interpretation," AACSB International Tampa, FL, 2007. [57] K. Topping, "Peer assessment between students in colleges and universities," Review of educational Research, vol. 68, no. 3, pp. 249-276, 1998. [58] J. Lu and N. Law, "Online peer assessment: Effects of cognitive and affective feedback," Instructional Science, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 257-275, 2012. [59] T. Hovardas and K. Korfiatis, "Effects of an environmental education course on consensus estimates for proenvironmental intentions," Environment and Behavior, vol. 44, no. 6, pp. 760-784, 2012. [60] M. Van Zundert, D. Sluijsmans and J. Van Merriënboer, "Effective peer assessment processes: Research findings and future directions," Learning and Instruction, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 270-279, 2010. [61] L. A. Stefani, "Peer, self and tutor assessment: Relative reliabilities," Studies in Higher Education, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 69-75, 1994. [62] R. Saavedra and S. K. Kwun, "Peer evaluation in self-managing work groups," Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 450, 1993. [63] I. Hughes and B. Large, "Staff and peer-group assessment of oral communication skills," Studies in Higher Education, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 379-385, 1993. [64] J. Bowyer and L. Chambers, "Evaluating blended learning: Bringing the elements toghether," Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment Publication, vol. 23, pp. 17-26, 2017. [65] R. Boelens, S. Van Laer, B. De Wever and J. Elen, "Blended learning in adult education: towards a definition of blended learning," 2015.

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Student Feedback through Desktop Capture: Creative Screen-casting Antonio Martínez-Arboleda Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE) School of Languages, Cultures and Societies (Spanish, Portuguese and Latin-American Studies) University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds (United Kingdom) [email protected]

ABSTRACT In this paper a Teaching Enhancement Research Project on screencast feedback currently being carried out at the University of Leeds is presented. Although the research is still ongoing, there is sufficient data to advance a rich typology for this type of practice, which will help software developers as well as educators to understand the full range of affordances of this type of tool and cater for the needs of students and teachers. A reflection on the wider humanistic significance of screencast feedback is advanced by presenting audio-visual feedback as a new genre in the making that empowers tutors and facilitates communication of complex ideas through enhanced multimodality. The practical consequences for the institutions of adopting this practice, for instance the need to integrate platforms and create new workflows, are considered. Suggestions such as the decoupling of feedback from grades, which came about during the author's trailing of the tool are also discussed. The paper does suggest a way forward in this ongoing research and, more widely, in the field.

KEYWORDS screencast; assessment; capture; audio-visual

feedback;

desktop;

1 INTRODUCTION Desktop capture, also called screencast, has become a relatively mainstream tool for the most technologically savvy educators. A number of providers offer free and also paidfor services that are increasingly popular. One of the uses for this type of tool is precisely the delivery of feedback. The work

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submitted by the student is brought up on the screen. The tutor then records both her voice and whatever is being shown on the screen. There are plenty of options. One of them is to highlight parts of the student work whilst commenting on it. Introducing decoupling of marks, feed-forward activities and even some element of interaction are other possibilities. Plenty of work has been devoted to improving feedback in HE, yet this remains an area in need of fresh thinking and game-changing approaches. The provision of unequivocal, constructive and specific, yet measured and tactful comments, is a very time-consuming task whose effectiveness is severely limited by the lack of affection imposed by written language, writing conventions and QA protocols that establish written forms of feedback for audit trail purposes. In the last seven years, there have been successful trials with screencast feedback, banking on previous and on-going experiences with audio-feedback. Personalisation of feedback and the proximity to students are two of the main advantages, whilst the time consumed in providing the feedback is the main drawback. However, to date there is no overarching study that deals in some depth with the whole range of opportunities offered by this tool, nor with the challenges that it presents for institutions, practitioners and students. Progress in the area is slow. In this paper, a Teaching Enhancement Project at the University of Leeds will be presented and discussed. It is aimed at

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offering a comprehensive vision of a wide range of educational, practical and institutional issues. The objective of this project, under the auspices of the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE) [1], and this paper is to help universities and educators to understand how desktop capture can have an impact in their relationship with the students and to facilitate informed decision-making in terms of institutional involvement and best practice, both educationally and administratively. Although this paper has a clear humanistic focus, the reflections herein will inspire many software designers and e-learning practitioners in their search for the development of new tools, new workflows or new features for their existing products that meet the current and future needs and expectations of the educational community. 2 LITERATURE REVIEW The literature on audio-visual feedback is rather patchy to date, but very solid in some aspects, particularly on the benefits that screen-casting brings in terms of student emotional engagement. There are, nevertheless, abundant studies on the benefits of audio only feedback. The results of the research on the latter are often included in the studies dedicated to audiovisual screencast feedback. The reason is that many of the benefits derived from audio feedback apply to its audio-visual counterpart. We will be referring to those studies insofar as they set the record straight on some of the less disputed aspects of this teaching enhancement project. One of my contentions, however, is that audio-visual screencast feedback is almost an entirely new game because it enables deictic communication and the multimodal nesting of ideas, as I will explain later in the paper.

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The question of student emotional engagement with feedback has been studied to some length. In 2012, Edwards, Dujardin and Williams [2] published a study on screencast feedback that was carried out with distance-learning students in a master‟s course. They compared two groups within one cohort: one received screencast feedback first and later written feedback and the other group received it the other way round the other written feedback. They concluded that students receive feedback more positively in the audio- visual, richer media, form. Students´ emotional predisposition to engage with the tutors and process the feedback is generally greater. In their study they also bring into consideration a webinar offered by Middleton, as referred by Edwards, Dujardin and Williams, 2012 [2], who claims that the emotional bonding created through the audiovisual feedback results not only from the richness of the media, but also from the students‟ observation of the tutor‟s cognitive engagement with the student‟s personal work. The reported as well that providing screencast feedback saves time to tutors. One of the drawbacks identified in their trial is that it was felt that the linear delivery of the video prevented students from having a holistic and easily accessible overview. The authors recommend that a structured summary of strengths and weaknesses of the essay be provided alongside the video recording. In the end, this pioneering study points at advantages of audio-visual feedback over written feedback, but leaves some unresolved questions despite the veracity of its findings. The weaknesses in the research design, highlighted by the authors themselves, show the difficulty to obtain reliable and irrefutable data to prove the specific benefits of screencast feedback without altering substantially the student learning experience during the trials and without dedicating huge amounts of resource. However, if we combine the findings of all the studies, including those

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of our Leeds project, it is clear that we are now in an excellent position to draw some valuable lessons and reap the fruit of all this work by considering the implementation of screencast feedback at a larger scale institutionally.

made by the tutor also varied depending on whether it was given in written or audio form. In short, the medium matters. It has an influence on the focus of the tutor and on what the student makes out of those comments.

Variety of practice when delivering audiovisual feedback is a very interesting issue. Providing a framework for understanding and capturing this variety constitutes a key pillar of this project. The study on the actual ways in which tutors use audio-visual feedback is essential to understand not only the affordances of this practice, but the possible drawbacks.

One of the questions that there is overwhelming agreement on in the literature is that audio-visual enables cross-referencing in a very agile way. It is almost like a form of audio gloss. The contextualisation of the comments of the tutor is seamless, avoiding the need to repeat or rephrase the student‟s point. This is something that I would like to reflect upon in this article. To date, I believe the cognitive and political significance of this combination of voice and text has been overseen.

In that vein, it is worth bringing about the study carried out by Harper, Green and Fernández-Toro in 2012 [3]. They worked with a group of HE tutors teaching different languages. They noted that when providing feedback, the focus on the type of errors was somehow different in each language. This is probably due the fact that each specific group of teachers carry forward their language teaching culture with them to the audio-visual medium. As opposed to other studies, where the question varying practice is not considered, this research opened the door to further enquiry into the question of styles of feedback provision. The question of how the focus of the feedback varies has also been considered, from a different angle by Woodacre and Stockewell in 2018 [4]. They deal with audio only feedback, comparing it with written feedback, but it is equally interesting for us. In their study, they use a chart designed by Chalmers, MacCallum, Mowat and Fulton in 2014 [5]. They found that when tutors provide audio feedback on essays there were more comments dedicated to correcting errors and explaining concepts and less comments dedicated to identifying errors. Also, in audio feedback, there was more emphasis on academic practice and less on subject knowledge. Interestingly, the interpretation of the intentions of each one of the comments

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Soden [6] has broadened the scope of the enquiries on audio-visual feedback by discussing its advantages and drawbacks with the tutors who tried it themselves. The other contribution of Soden to this field is his interest in improving the dialogical nature of feedback. In his rather comprehensive study, he acknowledges the difficulty to prove actual improvements in student performance given the number of variables involved. Additionally, the differentials in student responses to the feedback suggests that there is only so much that the tutors can do to engage with students. In each individual case there must be factors beyond the control of the tutor. Finally, it is worth noting that his study points at the need to deal with the question of software workflows and other practicalities, including workload issues, and the possibility of offering a mix of written and audio-visual feedback. These are pertinent questions that the Leeds project is also trying to shed light further. In the following sections further answers will be provided to issues raised in these trials and important additional points will be added to the debate in order to provide a more

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comprehensive perspective of theoretical and practical implications of implementing audiovisual feedback, shedding some light in terms of best practice and steps ahead. 3. TEACHING ENHACEMENT PROJECT I have been using screencast feedback as part of my teaching since 2015, when The University of Leeds adopted Mediasite as its institutional platform for the provision of lecture capture and desktop capture. I was attracted by it because of its security settings, which prevent students sharing the link, because it does not impose a time limit on the recording and because the storage of the videos remains under my control and within our university‟s servers. In March 2017 I decided to share my experience with the wider community and produced a video [7] providing guidance for colleagues and reflecting on my work to date. A few months later, I started a Teaching Enhancement Project at the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence, which is on-going at the time of writing this article. These were the initial objectives of the project, which generally remain the same, if not more ambitious: -To describe an initial protocol for the use of desktop capture for the provision of feedback through Mediasite desktop capture in essaytype work based on my experience in 2015/6 and 2016/17; -To expand the use of this method to a wide range of academic departments involving other colleagues; -To obtain student responses with a focus on a) emotional and practical engagement with this type of feedback b) emotional and practical engagement with the subject and other aspects of the learning situation; -To obtain feedback from colleagues on a) perceived advantages, including time saved in

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relation to written feedback; b) changes in the tone, scope and depth of comments induced by the new medium; and c) disadvantages or issues that would require technical work, changes to assessment policies and procedures or training; -To consider the student journeys through feedback currently established in several Schools in order to suggest possible changes that would help us to realise all the educational affordances brought about by the proposed method and to maximise its efficiency; -To consider existing protocols on assessment and formulate alternative procedures that can deliver similar or improved levels of Quality Assurance and administrative efficiency for tutors, second markers, external examiners and support staff when using the proposed method; -To continue exploring the technical work required to streamline the processes of a) delivering anonymously and seamlessly video links of Mediasite recordings to students and b) recording and collating marks, documentation and links for tutors, second markers and support staff. -To integrate the primary data obtained with relevant secondary sources in order to produce research-based findings that can help to refine the proposed method and justify its use at Leeds and beyond. At the end of the project, these are the expected outputs: -A report with the findings of this Project, including recommendations for the provision of feedback on written assessment for the whole of our institution and beyond; -A range of robust yet customisable user journeys for a) the production, accessible storage and sharing of screencasts that improves students‟ understanding of the feedback received therein, as well as their

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emotional and practical engagement with it; b) the consumption and acting upon the feedback by the students; and c) the administrative handling of documentation on feedback, for instance Word documents with essay cover sheets or Excel mark-sheets, and screencasts as well as their integration in the administrative processes that follow up, potentially in a collaborative way with students, who could complete some of these documents as part of their learning and incorporate them to the audit trail of feedback provision for QA assurances purposes. -A comprehensive guide to facilitate training of colleagues in the use of the proposed method. The methodology combines action research through interviews with key colleagues working in the areas of IT, Professional Development and Quality Assurance with semi/structured interviews with tutors who have tried the tool, as well as focus groups with tutors who have not tried the tool and students questionnaires. Participating students are being asked open questions such as a) Please explain what you did when you received the feedback for this piece in relation to it. In what way this is different from what you would have done with written feedback? b) How did you feel listening to the voice of your tutor as opposed to reading his/her comments? c) How do you value as a learner the feedback you received?

or suggest more corrections? On what aspects of student work (structural coherence, linguistic correction, appropriateness of sources…) did you focus more? c) How did you feel communicating orally as opposed to in writing? d) Once you look at the final product, the recording, how different do you think the content of the feedback offered through the tool is from the feedback you would have typically provided for this particular piece of assessment? e) When looking at the type of feedback you provided and the student response, do you feel that the assessment arrangements for your module could be different in the future as a result of the introduction of the tool? f) In what way do you think this method contributes to changing your relationship with the student? What difficulties did you find in the use of the tool? Participating tutors are given some basic training in the use of the tools and a clear workflow for the production and delivery of the feedback. The guidance was very detailed insofar as the administrative processes, but very open on the pedagogical side. Importantly, tutors were required to ensure that the policies of their academic departments for assessment and feedback were complied with. This meant, amongst others, that a meaningful and substantial reference to the assessment criteria had to be done by their tutor at some point in the recording or later on a sheet. BASIC TIPCS

Participating tutors are being asked questions such as a) What was your main concern before you started using the tool? b) As you got on with the tool, did you feel more inclined to provide more comments,

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-When recording, feel free to adapt your narrative to the new medium. -You can use highlighting or underlining to refer to content you intend to comment. Students can read too, not just listen.

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-Don’t forget to refer to assessment criteria as appropriate, visually or verbally. -Think of your video as a learning resource as well. -Use the pause button as required. Think the student can also pause your recording to think, write, check things up. -Try to be unequivocal. Sometimes statements like “It’s OK” or “I think you could have done this in a different way” do not convey meaning as clearly as we think. Figure 1. Tips for participating tutors in one of the guidance documents for trials

Linking my comments to the assessment criteria was a requirement that I had complied with my own experimenting. My solution was to show the marking sheet on the screen, in the recording, at the end, and to do a brief summary of each aspect of the performance. Additionally, I had created beforehand a standardised and clear colour-coding for my highlighting. Each type of issue would be assigned a colour. That way, students would know from the outset, for instance, that the colour green would be for grammatical accuracy (I teach, amongst other subjects, Spanish language), that yellow would be for richness of expression and semantic accuracy, etc. Therefore, I would be also fulfilling the need to connect my own narrative with the assessment criteria by using this colourcoding system, and not just at the end of the recording, with the summary.

Figure 2. Using highlighting in Word

Finally, participating tutors were given the opportunity to embed a feed-forward activity or take advantage of the administrative opportunities provided by the new method for the deconstruction of the different aspects of the provision of feedback for the benefit of the student. As it can be seen in Figure 3, the decoupling of the marks from the feedback is a possible way of innovating. To date, none of the participants has opted to follow this path, but it is early days. When I tried it myself I felt it was beneficial for the student for many reasons, one of them being that the possible discussion about the feedback would certainly focus on the discussion of actual work of the student and my comments. FEEDBACK, GRADING

FEEDFORWARD

AND

I also post in the Virtual Learning Environment a feed-forward form that students are advised to fill and work with as part of their own work in the module. This is particularly useful for mid-term assessment. I recommend them to send it to me by email if they want to talk to me in my tutorial hours about ways to improve or clarification of anything in the feedback. Crucially, I don’t say the mark on the video, although many of the students have a rough idea after hearing my comments. Once the second marker has confirmed the mark, then the students receive the mark sheet they have seen on the video, with the numerical mark and the ticks. This is particularly useful as well, because I decouple feedback from grading. I set as a priority the timely access to the video and their engagement with the feedback. So, imagine a piece of work submitted on the 21st of February: I spend a week doing videos. • On 4th of March I send the videos to the students and they have few days to digest the feedback and come to see me. • On 4th of March I also send the second marker the work of students for his or her consideration (the excel sheet with marks and

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video links alongside the zipped folder with the student work as explained later in the document. • Both the students and the second marker get on with their respective duties. The date the work is due back, 14th of March, the marks are ready and posted. However, there are many ways to go about your recording and engage with your students and their work. Please do feel free to innovate. I am sharing my experience and what I have learnt from secondary literature to help participants to feel confident, but one of the objectives of the project is to explore any specific ways of doing things that you may come up with. Your creativity is greatly appreciated. Figure 3. Guidance on Feed-forward and decoupling

4 AUDIO-VISUAL FEEDBACK: BREAKING BOUNDARIES Literacy, the print, photography and cinema, mass production and reproduction of culture and word-processers have shaped who we are culturally so far. However, after the turn of the Century, the wide availability of tools for audio-visual production, the interconnectivity of the Internet and artificial intelligence are going to revolutionise how we think and relate with others in unsuspected ways. Feedback is form of text, in the wider sense, where collaboration is an extremely salient feature. The feedback of the tutor does not make much sense without the work of the student. In this respect, there are broadly two types of feedback: glossing, the process of amalgamation of both student and tutor work; and the commentary, a self-standing oral or written text visually or temporally separated from the work of the student. Audio-visual feedback promises to alter the way in which the integration of the multimodal text(s) of the tutor within the text of the student occurs, with consequences in all order of things: Multimodal expression has grown exponentially in possibilities, enriching our repertoire of techniques for intertwining the

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voice and writing of the tutor with those of the student and those of any other external sources brought about on the screen by the tutor. Secondary orality, spoken language produced by literate people, is on the raise, as audio and audio-visual production have become mainstream. Audio-visual feedback, as a genre or sets of genres in the making, will receive influences from a wealth of new genres, ranging from WhatsApp recordings to YouTuber video or even video games and training videos. Like any other form of multimodal expression, audio-visual feedback provides an opportunity to create new itineraries for nesting, the ability to embed past and future thoughts, whether your own or someone else‟s, in one‟s thinking at given time. For Michael Corballis [8] this human capacity, called “recursive thought”, is what differentiate us from animals. Audio-visual feedback is a particularly challenging context for the examination of nesting, as in many cases the comments of the tutor on student work refer to the thoughts of others, typically authors, whether brought in by the student in an essay or by the tutor, sometimes through an extract of secondary literature, which in turn may well incorporate a variety of voices in the same statement. Surely, a wise combination of voice, the highlighting of student text, and the showing of other‟s texts can make the nesting process more agile, narratively, and more accessible for the student, allowing both greater depth and clarity from the tutor. It will be interesting to see how tutors depart from the conventions of written feedback, honing their narrative in this new medium and mode, as they take flight over this rich and bubbling landscape of the old, the dead, the new and the possible. Remediation, the development of new genres on the basis of existing ones, requires releasing ballast. The communication loses and gains, using the terminology of Kress [9], resulting from this journey into the audio-visual realm, will have

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to be accounted for. I dare to say, the balance will be overwhelmingly positive. Much more can be yielded with a wise combination of oral and written than by using exclusively one or the other. The big challenge for tutors, for what I have seen so far in my data, is to decide what to leave behind and what to keep in their personal journey from the written realm into the audio-visual realm. The oral turn will certainly reveal, particularly in the case of audio-visual feedback, the cleavage between oral and written features, exposing the artificiality, reductionist and derivative nature, as well as the raison d‟être and extraordinary power, of the written form in relation to the oral. As Kress [10] suggests, language is a very questionable abstraction. In so far as the power relations underpinning the provision of audio-visual feedback, the new multimodal affordances, with their unsettling, yet liberating wealth of choices, will turn the tutor into a designer, increasing its capacity of agency, as Jewitt & Kress [10] anticipate for other type of audio-visual communication. However, the question of power cannot be fully understood without looking at the bundling of feedback and grade. Sadly, feedback is currently used in Higher Education to justify grades, and grades themselves are seen as a form of feedback. Decoupling feedback from numerical marks has become a necessity. In our consumer society this well help us to create more breathing spaces, free from the transactionality involved in the giving of a grade, in our educational relationship with the student. Assessment, as Tan [11] explains making reference to a wealth of authors, is at the centre of the power relations between student and tutor and therefore is a locus for tension. Audio-visual feedback can also be seen as a catalyst for critical reflection on assessment practice. Confronting the work of students through a new medium may trigger new types of comments. The spontaneity of oral expression can help us to unveil the existence

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of emerging and indeterminate assessment criteria. As in the work of Sadler [12], these play an important role in assessment. Finally, taking up screen-casting can also can help us to improve the drafting of assessment innovation in assessment design and assessment processes. As the affordances of the new medium are discovered, there will be new ideas for tasks that involve the production of more visual work. For instance, audio-visual screencast feedback is particularly suited for design of digital outputs such as videos, web pages or magazines. The ability to point at design features that appear on the screen and comment on them will certainly eliminate existing barriers for the provision of more effective feedback. 5 TOWARD A TYPOLOGY DESKTOP CAPTURE FEEDBACK

OF

One of my main findings so far is the huge amount of variables that there appears to be when looking at different ways to provide audio-visual feedback, as described below. They do not preclude each other and they rarely would present themselves in absolute extremes. Some of them have been discovered in my trials with other tutors, some of them in my own experience. This typology will hopefully allow researchers and IT practitioners to set the parameters of any future trials and guidelines whilst providing an overview of the potential of this method for teachers in general. 5.1 Granular versus Summative Feedback Granular audio-visual feedback involves engaging with the nitty-gritty of the student thinking, questioning critically and even suggesting, whereas summative feedback concentrates on describing the strengths and weaknesses of the work in more general terms. 5.2 Live Feedback versus Staged Feedback

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Life audio-visual feedback occurs when the tutor reads the work for the first time whilst recording. The video renders the encounter of the tutor with the student work. It can be more spontaneous and authentic. Students realise that they are also gaining an insight in a process that sometimes seems to be too intimate to share. Obviously, tutors have the possibility to press pause and play, in case they want to read a paragraph and the talk, or if they need to consult something. Another advantage is that the tutor can say what she thinks without having to make notes or having to remember in detail what to say at a later stage when she starts the recording. This form of feedback is ideal for granular feedback and not incompatible with producing at the end some type of written or audio-visual recap. Staged audio-visual feedback, on the other hand, requires reading and preparing the recording. It can be much more formal, linguistically elaborate and precise, yet it can be hugely time-consuming for granular engagement. It provides the opportunity to replicate orally the style of written feedback, which, in a way, may defeat the purpose of providing audio-visual feedback, as one of its reported advantages is its warmth and conversational nature. 5.3 Stand Alone versus Accessory Feedback Stand Alone audio-visual feedback does not rely on any paper form. All the student needs to know about his work is on the video. There exists the possibility of bringing up on the screen a feedback form and tick some boxes in the rubrics/assessment criteria with the word processor whilst recording, adding some comments. That electronic form, typically a Word document or similar, can later be used for quality assurance purposes, as it may help the second marker or the external examiner to have a quick insight into the reasoning behind the mark without having to listen to the full video.

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Accessory audio-visual feedback is a mere complement of the written feedback provided in the margins of the work, in paper or electronically, as well as on a marking sheet. There are different ways of doing it, but I would say that its cost-effectiveness is questionable if it does not add new content or if it is not fresh in style. 5.4 Dialogic versus Monologic Feedback Dialogic audio-visual feedback is delivered with the intention to make the student pause, reflect on his work, reflect on a question presented by the tutor at some point of the recording, probably allowing him to go through other parts of his work or even some of the readings. The tutor can throw the question and ask the student to press pause and then continue with the delivery of the answer. That way tutors can turn the feedback into a personalised learning activity. One of the strategies I use is to provide a colour code for all the types of issues I am interested in commenting on. When I record and highlight a specific part of the work, probably a sentence or even just a word, I decide what colour to use for highlighting. Instead of explaining to the student straightaway what I think, I present the student with a question such as this: “Well, why am I using green here in this sentence, do you remember what we studied in class about X or Y. You can pause, try to find out the answer and then press play and listen to it. It is a form of embedded test”. Such a strategy can be used only few times focusing on key issues or more widely throughout the recording if required. Monologic audio-visual feedback, on the contrary does not make explicit calls for reflection, which does not necessarily mean that students, out of their own accord cannot press pause and think. 5.5 Reasoned versus Authoritative Feedback

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Reasoned and Authoritative audio-visual feedbacks appear mixed in most occasions throughout a typical recording. Reasoned feedback attempt to provide an explanation, based on logic or on proven facts or on the authority of an academic voice. Authoritative feedback, on the contrary, relies on the judgement or even intuition or professional preference of the tutor. Irrational and arbitrary as they may appear to be in theory, this type of comments are essential in the learning process. Education requires all sorts of knowledge transfer from the tutor to the student. The expertise and authority of the tutor is based too on her personal experience, which is something that the student should benefit from. The reason why I find this latter distinction pertinent in this typology is that I am interested in the linguistic formulation of authoritative feedback. One of my contentions is that verbal communication allows for more nuance and flexibility to express personal judgement. I can recall a participant using this formula: “Umm, I am not getting here a sense of…”. Although one could argue that that formulation could perfectly be presented to the student in writing (I just wrote it myself), the nuance of the voice can never be captured in writing. When we speak we have in fact a greater range of usable expressions for these types of judgements as the voice can hone their adequacy of many of them, which, in written form only, would be on the verge of inadequacy. The ability to express academic and professional authority in a refined, rich and nuanced way is fundamental in the relationship between the tutor and the student. 5.6 Deictic Feedback Deixis is a function of language that aims at designating a time, a person, an object or an idea without reproducing it, for instance by using pronouns, or adverbs such as “here” or “then”. In audio-visual feedback, deixis is crucial, but it is not only verbal, for instance when the tutors says “What you wrote there is brilliant”. Deixis can also be visual, as the

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mere action of highlighting or pointing with the mouse fulfils the function of designating. When providing audio-visual feedback we must be aware of our deictic potential and understand what constitutes helpful deixis. We can save time and easy our narrative by pointing at something correctly and timely, but the connection between our action of pointing and our intention must be crystal clear and well staged. Moving the cursor and the pages up and down must be done with consideration to the viewer. Hill [13] identified as early as in 2006 that analysing the operation of tracking written language orally whilst using deixis presented considerable challenges and should be the subject of specific studies. This to date, remains an exciting open field in the area of multimodality. To conclude this section, my advice is that in any trials of audio-visual feedback, whether as part of a formal research project or not, practitioners will have to consider very carefully how this wide range of possibilities can be fine-tuned. I believe there are a lot of synergies to be gained if the choice is right. Conversely, there are combinations of choices within the spectrum of each typology that may deliver little or no improvements in relation to traditional feedback. 6 NEXT STEPS AND TEMPTATIVE CONCLUSIONS As a result of my engagement with Audiovisual feedback, both theoretically and in practice, I have furthered my enquiry and intend to look to the following questions in my forthcoming research [13]: 1. What linguistic and professional conventions do we as practitioners, actually take with us when we are invited to move from the written realm into the audio-visual realm?

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2. What degree of inventiveness and adaptability do we apply into the audio-visual realm? 3. Should an optimum mix of written, visual and audio components within the feedback given for one piece of work be defined? 4. Is audio-visual feedback a tool to gloss previously written feedback or is the recording the „real McCoy‟ in itself, rendering written bits of feedback more of a supporting act? 5. Do tutors express their professional and their academic authority and identity through their voice any differently? How is this seen by the student? Does this matter in their relationship? At the time of writing this paper, more trials have been arranged and discussions with IT and Professional Development colleagues are taking shape. The administrative barrier is substantial in HE institutions because our processes and IT workflows within existing platforms, streamlined as they may be, were conceived when screen-casting feedback was not on the cards and existing desktop capture tools were not designed specifically with an eye on providing and delivering feedback on individual anonymised student work. Google Sheets could be used to merge student names and numbers, emails and Mediasite links; some integration work with Grademark in our Virtual Learning Environment would also be a possibility. Although I remain very positive about this project, it is clear to me that screen-casting feedback does have a greater chance to take off in formative assessment, where anonymity does not tend to be a requirement, and in midterm or partial assessment, when the integration of the feedback with solid feedforward activities may be more appropriate. Writing, the print and industrial and technological rationality have delivered great

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progress for humanity, but they also pose a risk for education: granularity, emotional richness, depth in the detail, proximity and personalisation should be reinstated as key principles of a solid, critical and humanistic education in all fields of knowledge. Interestingly, a technological solution such audio-visual feedback can help us to reinstate these principles. REFERENCES [1]

http://teachingexcellence.leeds.ac.uk/

[2]

Edwards, K., Dujardin F. and Williams N. (2012) Screencast Feedback for Essays on a Distance Learning MA in Professional Communication, Journal of Academic Writing, Vol. 2 No. 1 Autumn 2012, 95–126

[3]

Harper F., Green H. and Fernández-Toro M. (2012) Evaluating the integration of Jing screencasts in feedback on written assignments. 15th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning

[4]

Woodacre E. and Stockwell S. (2018) Shades of meaning: nuance in written and audio feedback. Transforming Assessment 2018. http://transformingassessment.com/events_4_april _2018.php

[5]

Chalmers C., MacCallum J., Mowat E. and Fulton N. (2014) Audio feedback: richer language but no measurable impact on student performance. Practitioner Research In Higher Education. 2014 University of Cumbria Vol 8 (1) pages 64-73

[6]

Soden, B. (2017) The Case of Screencast Feedback: Barriers to the Use of Learning Technology. Innovative Practice in Higher Education, Vol.3 (1) April 2017

[7]

Martínez-Arboleda A. (2017) Desktop Capture Feedback (2017) Video Leeds. https://tinyurl.com/DESKTOPCAPTURE1

[8]

Corballis, M. (2014) Why Language and Thought Resemble Russian Dolls. Scientific American. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/talkingback/why-language-and-thought-resemble-russiandolls/

[9]

Kress, G. (2005) Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition 22 (2005) 5–22

[10]

Jewitt, C., & Kress, G. (Eds.). (2003). Multimodal literacy. New York: Peter Lang

[11]

Tan, K. H. K. (2012) How Teachers Understand and Use Power in Alternative Assessment. Education Research International, vol. 2012

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[12]

Sadler, D R. (2009) Indeterminacy in the use of preset criteria for assessment and grading, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 34:2, 159-179

[13]

Hill, C. (2006) Deixis and Digital Communication, Word, 57:2-3, 279-302

[14]

Martínez-Arboleda A. (2018) Blog diary three: Gaining greater understanding of a new form of feedback. http://teachingexcellence.leeds.ac.uk/blog-diarythree-understanding-better-a-new-medium-ofassessment/

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Accessibility to Disabled Users: A Keyboard Application for LD Students Onintra Poobrasert1, Daranee Saksiriphol2 and Bunthita Likkhasit3 Accessible Innovation and Universal Design Laboratory, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, Pathumthani 10120, Thailand 2,3 Department of Special Education Faculty of Education, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok 10110, Thailand [email protected] 1

ABSTRACT Most of the children with literacy difficulties face problems with vocabularies spelling and writing. Currently, there are large numbers of children with literacy difficulties in Thailand. The issue thus prompted the authors to recognize the urgency in providing the support for these children and enable them to keep up with the colleagues. Accurate vocabularies writing and spelling are the essential skills required to be improved among these children. As a result, the authors have studied the writing patterns of these children and utilize the findings as a basis for the development of the instrument, which was the mobile application serving as the virtual keyboard. The application aimed to solve the mistakes of vocabularies writing caused by the language literacy disorders. As the users type the vocabularies using this virtual keyboard, it will automatically correct the typing errors because of language literacy disorders with the accurate or similar words as well as displays the definitions. The results of the pilot testing revealed that after the implementation of this virtual keyboard application, the writing skill of the students in the experimental group was significantly improved at 0.05 statistical level and it was found that the satisfaction on the application was mostly at the highest level.

KEYWORDS Android, Keyboard, Learning disabilities, Purposive sampling, Word search

1 INTRODUCTION Children with learning disabilities are the group which required specific needs and assistance as they have difficulties regarding the literacy and calculation [1]. The children with the reading disorder are characterized by trouble with reading, reading quickly, difficulties in spelling words, clumsy reading or understanding what one reads. The children with the deficiency in the ability to write are associated with impaired handwriting, misuse of written composition, spelling error, and poor legibility. The children with difficulties in the calculation are facing a deficit in the ability to understand numbers and their values as well as confusion over the similar numbers and not able to comprehend the conceptualization. Additionally, some of the children with learning disabilities are accompanied by difficulties in learning skills other than the linguistic ones. The

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study, however, revealed that most of the children with learning disabilities are those having difficulties in reading and writing, and followed by the calculation disability [2]. The intervention provided for these children is thus aimed at the literacy instruction as it is the vital skill. The children without literacy shall be struggling in learning. Self-learning is currently possible for anyone with the emergence of advanced and modern technology which allow people to access the required information via the personal computers, mobiles, and other devices [3]. The children with low literacy skill are thus lacking behind others regarding the access to such information, news, and fundamental knowledge.

2 OBJECTIVES 1.

2.

3.

To examine the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write after the intervention with the LD keyboard application; To make a comparison of the abilities to write the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write prior and after the intervention with the LD keyboard application; To investigate the levels of satisfaction on the LD keyboard application among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write.

3 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The findings of the study shall provide the useful information in developing the LD keyboard application to be applied by the instructor in the lesson planning to improve the literacy skill and provide the definitions of vocabularies for the students with learning disability. Scope of the study Population and samples: The population of the study was comprised of Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write. The samples were seven Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write enrolled in the first semester of the academic year 2017 using the purposive sampling method [4].

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Hypotheses 1. The Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write is satisfactory after the intervention with the LD keyboard application; 2. The Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write is improved after the intervention with the LD keyboard application; 3. The level of satisfaction on the LD keyboard application is high among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write.

4 METHODOLOGY The procedure of the LD keyboard application test to enhance the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write was discussed below. The samples of seven cases were drawn from the Grade 4-6 students in the affiliation of the Bangkok Metropolitan Department of Education with a deficiency in the ability to write who enrolled in the first semester of the academic year 2017 using the purposive sampling method. The details of sample selection are as follows; 1. Make a contact with the teacher in charge of the school’s special education department and request the collaboration in coordinating with the executives and asking permission to collect the data. The samples were selected from the students with learning disabilities through the screening performed by Rajanukul Institute and seven cases were drawn which consisted of the students with poor spelling ability. 2. Conduct the pre-class test using vocabularies writing test comprised of 20 items. The ten writing test items were required to be written on the paper the other ten were required to be written on the tablet device. The classes were then provided to the students with the implementation of the LD keyboard application for 20 sessions. The 40-minute-class was provided from Mondays to Fridays for the period of 20 days during 12: 00-12: 40 hrs. The post-class test was then conducted using vocabularies writing test comprised of 20 items. The ten writing test items were required to be written on the paper the other ten were required to be written on the tablet device. 3. Perform the assessment of satisfactory on the LD keyboard application among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write. The scales for levels of satisfaction were as follows; The instruments used were the LD keyboard application [5] and Thai vocabularies writing test.

5 FINDINGS Following the trial of the LD keyboard application for enhancing the writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write, the findings of the test were as follows; 1.

The Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write after the implementation of the LD keyboard application.

Table 1. The scores, median, and interquartile range for postintervention (paper writing) writing skill among grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write. Student number

Pretest score

Level of competency

Full marks = 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mdn IQR

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Posttest score

Level of competency

Scores difference

Poor Poor Poor Basic Basic Poor Basic Poor

1 2 2 3 3 2 3

Full marks = 10

Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor

1 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 0

The results from Table 1 indicated that the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write before the implementation of the LD keyboard application were equivalent to 0 scores, the median was 0, and the interquartile range was 0. The overall competency level was poor. After the LD keyboard application intervention, the scores were between 1-3, the median was 2, and the interquartile range was 0. The overall competency level was poor, which is inconsistent with the Hypothesis 1 expecting the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write is satisfactory after the intervention with the LD keyboard application. The results from Table 2 indicated that the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write before the implementation of the vocabulary retrieval system were equivalent to 0 scores, the median was 0, and the interquartile range was 0. The overall competency level was poor. After the LD keyboard application intervention, the scores were between 1-5, the median was 0, and the interquartile range was 2. The overall competency level was poor, which is inconsistent with the Hypothesis 1 expecting the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write is satisfactory after the intervention with the vocabulary retrieval system.

The data were analyzed using statistical tools including the median, interquartile range [6], and the Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed - Rank Test [7].

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Table 2. The scores, median, and interquartile range for postintervention (tablet writing) writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write. Student number

Level of competency

Pretest score Full marks = 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mdn IQR

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Posttest score

Level of competency

Scores difference

Full marks = 10

Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor

2 1 1 2 2 5 2 2 1

Poor Poor Poor Poor Desirable Poor Poor Poor

Table 4. A comparison of the abilities to write the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write prior and after the intervention with the vocabulary retrieval system )tablet writing(. Student number

Scores

Preclass (X)

2 1 1 2 2 5 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Scores difference (D = Y-X)

Order of differences

2 1 1 2 2 5 2

4.5 1.5 1.5 4.5 4.5 7 4.5

The Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write after the implementation of the LD keyboard application.

Table 3. A comparison of the abilities to write the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write prior and after the intervention with the vocabulary retrieval system )paper writing(. Student number

Scores

Preclass (X)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Scores difference (D = Y-X)

Order of differences

Order of operations + -

T

Postclass (Y)

1 2 2 3 3 2 3

1 2 2 3 3 2 3

1 3 3 6 6 3 6

Total

+1 +3 +3 +6 +6 +3 +6 T+ = 28

2 1 1 2 2 5 2

The findings in Table 3 showed that the overall abilities to write the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write prior and after the intervention with the LD keyboard application were statistically significant higher at .05 level, corresponding with the Hypothesis 2 anticipating the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write is improved after the intervention the LD keyboard application. The results from Table 4 indicated that the overall abilities to write the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write prior and after the intervention with the LD keyboard application were statistically significant higher at .05 level, corresponding with the Hypothesis 2 anticipating the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write is improved after the intervention with the LD keyboard application.

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3.

0*

T+= 28

T-= 0

The levels of satisfaction on the LD keyboard application among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write.

Part 1: Personal information of the respondents: Table 5. Personal information of the respondents. Subjects 1.Genders

Description Males Females

71.43 28.57

2. Ages

10 years old 11 years old

28.57 42.86

12 years old

28.86

Grade 4

28.57

Grade 5

42.86

Grade 6

28.86

3. School grades

*Statistically significant at .05 level

+4.5 +1.5 +1.5 +4.5 +4.5 +7 +4.5

*Statistically significant at .05 level

0*

T-= 0

T

Postclass (Y)

Total

2.

Order of operations + -

Percentage

Part 2: Details of satisfaction on the LD keyboard application: (1) The evaluation of the interface of the LD keyboard application. According to the assessment for satisfaction on the LD keyboard application [8,9], the respondents were consisting of 71.43% males and 28.57% females. The respondents with the age of 10 years old were accounting for 28.57%, 42.87% for 11 years old, and 28.86% for 12 years old respondents. 28.86% of the respondents are currently in Grade 4, 42.86% in Grade 5, and 28.86% in Grade 6. Regarding the satisfaction survey on the LD keyboard application, the first aspect was relating to the interface of the application which acquired the average score of 4.56 and the highest level of satisfaction [10]. The items of optimal font type on the screen, optimal font color, optimal descriptive symbol or visual explaining the meaning, and the optimal manual (more understandable for users) obtained the average score of 5.00, equivalent to the highest level of satisfaction, followed by optimal descriptive message explaining the meaning and optimal explanation for setting

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(ease of navigation) with the average score of 4.86 and the highest level of satisfaction.

resulted in the desirable degree of knowledge and vocabulary usage skill.

Table 6. The evaluation of the interface of the LD keyboard application.

6 CONCLUDING REMARKS

No.

Items of the evaluation

Levels of satisfaction X̄

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5

User-friendly interface Optimal font type on the screen Optimal font size on the screen Optimal font color The optimal descriptive message explaining the meaning 1.6 Optimal descriptive symbol or visual explaining the meaning 1.7 Optimal narrative voice explaining the meaning 1.8 User-friendly on-screen vocabularies and ease of navigation 1.9 The optimal explanation for setting ) ease of navigation( 1.10 Optimal manual )more understandable for users( On the average

1.

Level

5.00 4.43 5.00 5.00 4.86

Highest Highest Highest Highest Highest

5.00

Highest

3.14 3.14

High High

4.86

Highest

5.00 4.56

Highest Highest

(2) The evaluation of the accuracy and efficiency of the LD keyboard application. Table 7. The evaluation of the accuracy and efficiency of the LD keyboard application. No.

Items of the evaluation

2.1 The accuracy of the data retrieval 2.2 Processing speed 2.3 Ease of usage On the average

Levels of satisfaction X̄

Level

4.14 4.00 4.25 4.13

Highest High Highest Highest

The second topic of the satisfaction on the LD keyboard application was the evaluation for the accuracy and efficiency of the LD keyboard application which acquired the average score of 4. 13, equivalent to the highest level of satisfaction. The ease of usage obtained the average score of 4.25 and the highest level of satisfaction. The accuracy of the data retrieval had the average score of 4. 14 with the highest level of satisfaction. The processing speed which acquired the average score of 4.00 equivalent to the high level of satisfaction. The result of the data analysis was consistent with the Hypothesis 3 predicting that the level of satisfaction on the LD keyboard application is high among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write. Furthermore, the survey for issues relating to the function of the vocabularies retrieval revealed the frequent disappearance of the virtual keyboard which required users to regularly restart the device as well as the problem of slightly distorted pronunciation for certain words and some of the vocabularies showed no meaning. The users were impressed with the opportunity for the students to perform the self-learning and research while paying great attention to the LD keyboard application and easily find the required information which

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2.

The Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write after the implementation of the LD keyboard application was poor, which contradicted to the Hypothesis 1 expecting the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write is satisfactory after the intervention with the vocabulary retrieval system. This might be occurred due to the various factors including the fact that the students have the critical learning disability as evidenced from the pretest in which all of the students acquired 0 score despite they are currently studying in Grade 3-4. Their competency level was lower than the actual educational stage. The vocabularies which most of the students were not able to write such as "สามารถ"sǎamâat (able), "สั ป ดาห์ " - sàpdaa (week), "สุ จริ ต " - sùtcarìt (honest), "โท รศั พ ท์ " - thoorasàp (telephone), "ป ระโยช น์ " pràyòot (benefit), "กตัญ ญู " - katanyuu (gratitude), "สามัค คี " sǎamákkhii ( unity) , and " รั ฐ บ า ล " - rátthabaan (government), among others. The trial stage was also relatively short and disrupted by activities which require suspension of the special session and resulted in the discontinuity. Some of the students also absent from sessions of Fridays due to the domestic necessity. Furthermore, the session which provided on the final daily class in the dedicated classroom which requires the students to move there is the timeconsuming process. With these reasons, the students were still inaccurately writing the Thai vocabularies which affected their competency even after the implementation of the vocabulary retrieval system to be in the "poor" level of ability. The Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write is improved after the intervention with the LD keyboard application consistent with the Hypothesis 2 because the LD keyboard application is the virtual keyboard application running on the Android operating system which assisting the students in better reading and memorizing the vocabularies with consonants, vowels, and intonation marks. The system also integrated with narrative voice and the students are able to look up for the vocabularies by themselves based on the flashcards instructing the students to enter the words on the tablet device and the queried vocabularies will appear along with their definitions. Typing with the keyboard was the attractive activity for the students and they displayed the interest in learning vocabularies through looking, listening to the guide pronunciation and read along which enable the memorization and comprehension with the vocabularies consisting of the initial consonant,

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3.

vowel, intonation mark and final consonant which deviated from the word-ending-protocols. The abovementioned reasons are the motivation for the students toward the learning. Despite the fact that the students acquired higher scores after the implementation of vocabularies retrieval, the pre intervention and post intervention scores are not considerably different. The analysis for the styles of writing by the students is, however, suggested that they were not able or inaccurately writing the vocabularies before the intervention with the omission of the consonant, vowel, and intonation mark in the words they have been instructed to write. The word-by-word review revealed that the students were able to write the consonant, vowel, and intonation mark constituting the vocabularies in the certain degree. This suggested that the students were beginning to memorize the words they learned and result in the improved writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write after the implementation of the LD keyboard application.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The level of satisfaction on the LD keyboard application is highest among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write, consistent to the Hypothesis 3 predicting that the level of satisfaction on the LD keyboard application is high among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write. This is the result of an interface design based on the comic characters which relevant and attractive for the students of this age. The font size on the screen is also optimal for the student's vision and typing. The choice of the font color which distinct from the background made it noticeable to read. The descriptive symbols or visuals explaining the meaning are located in the eye-catching position and notable. The vocabularies retrieval also provides the vocabularies retrieval with accurate meaning results and easily accessible from the screen with ease of usage for the students.

[3] C. Pasquina, (2017). Mobile Learning: New Frontier for Teaching. In The International Journal of E-Learning and Educational Technologies in the Digital Media (IJEETDM), Vol. 3, No. 4. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17781/P002384.

To sum up, the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 46 students with a deficiency in the ability to write after the implementation of the LD keyboard application was poor. However, the Thai vocabularies writing skill among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write after the implementation of the LD keyboard application was significantly improved at 0.05 statistical level and the level of satisfaction on the LD keyboard application is high among Grade 4-6 students with a deficiency in the ability to write was highest.

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We would like to convey our thanks and acknowledge the assistance of members in Speech and Audio Technology Lab (SPT), National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), Miss Wantanee Phantachat, Asst. Prof. Dr. Putthachart Pothibal, Mr. Sittipong Saychum, and Mrs. Naiyana Imphanban. Our thanks also extend to the Department of Special Education, Faculty of Education, Srinakharinwirot University and the Director, the teachers and the students at the School in Bangkok for their time and assistance.

REFERENCES [1] J. Baumel, Learning Disabilities in Children. Retrieved [May, 2018] from the World Wide Web: http://www.greatschools.org/LD/identifying/ learningdisabilities-in-children.gs?content=664. [2] J M. Fletcher, Classification and Identification of Learning Disabilities. Academic Press, 2012, ISBN 9780123884091, pp. 1-25.

[4] M. Q. Patton, Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990. [5] O. Poobrasert, and T. Mupattararot, Human Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering of Thai Word Search Keyboard Application for Students with Learning Disabilities, IEEE in press. [6] C. Taylor, Understanding the Interquartile Range in Statistics. Retrieved [June, 2018] from the World Wide Web: https://www.thoughtco.com /what-is-theinterquartile-range-3126245. [7] T.W. MacFarland, J.M. Yates, Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks Test. In: Introduction to Nonparametric Statistics for the Biological Sciences Using R. Springer, Cham, 2016. [8] T. Jones, Assessment and Control of Software Risks. Prentice Hall (1st ed.), p. 464, 1993. [9] R. Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach. McGraw Hill Education (7th ed.), ISBN-10: 9339212088, 2017. [10] R. Tahir, and F. Arif, (2015). A Meausurement Model Based on Usability Metrics for Mobile Learning User Interface for Children. In The International Journal of ELearning and Educational Technologies in the Digital Media (IJEETDM), Vol. 1 , No. 1. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17781/P001503.

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