Paramedic students need to acquire knowledge and skills necessary to perform basic as well as complex clinical skills, to ensure patient safety, and to manage sophisticated equipment. Time and resource pressures on students, teaching staff and institutions have led health professional educators to develop and embrace alternative opportunities such…

Lynch and Purnawarman (2004:50) point out that "a solid electronic portfolio can show reflection, evolution of thought and overall professional development". Research shows that electronic portfolio assessment, if implemented thoughtfully, can successfully engage learners in critical thinking and problem solving, promote lifelong education,…

Recently, there are many good examples of how multi-disciplinary learning can support students to learn collaboratively and not solely focus on a single professional sector. During the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters, we have attempted to gather students studying different professional domains together. Students from the Department of…

This paper describes a framework for measuring student learning gains and engagement in a Computer Science 1 (CS 1) / Information Systems 1 (IS 1) course. The framework is designed for a CS1/IS1 course as it has been traditionally taught over the years as well as when it is taught using a new pedagogical approach with Web services. It enables the…

This paper describes the design, implementation, evaluation and further refinement of an ELGG-based social networking site to support professional development activity, project group and special interest groups, and the discussion and sharing of educational experiences and resources across Edinburgh Napier University in the United Kingdom.…

The recent National Students Survey showed that feedback to students was an ongoing problem in Higher Education. This paper reports on the extension of our past research into the provision of automated feedback for objective testing. In the research presented here, the system has been further developed for marking practical and essay questions and…

The correct grading of free text answers to exam questions during an assessment process is time consuming and subject to fluctuations in the application of evaluation criteria, particularly when the number of answers is high (in the hundreds). In consequence of these fluctuations, inherent to human nature, and largely determined by emotional…

Research in automated creation of test items for assessment purposes became increasingly important during the recent years. Due to automatic question creation it is possible to support personalized and self-directed learning activities by preparing appropriate and individualized test items quite easily with relatively little effort or even fully…

The aim of the paper is to present the scientific model and several methods for the expert evaluation of quality of learning objects (LOs) paying especial attention to LOs reusability level. The activities of eQNet Quality Network for a European Learning Resource Exchange (LRE) aimed to improve reusability of LOs of European Schoolnet's LRE…

In the globalized economies e-permeation has become a basic condition in our everyday lives. ICT can no longer be understood solely as artefacts and tools and computer-related literacy are no longer restricted to the ability to operate digital tools for specific purposes. The network society, and therefore also eLearning are characterized by…

Nowadays, Web based platforms are quite common in any university, supporting a very diversified set of applications and services. Ranging from personal management to student evaluation processes, Web based platforms are doing a great job providing a very flexible way of working, promote student enrolment, and making access to academic information…

Assessment surveys of students are often conducted in order to evaluate online learning activities. Most surveys measure responses to questions which are based on students' subjective impressions. The purpose of this study is to examine participants' assessments made during the transitional phase in an online learning environment which includes…

Improve students' ability to link knowledge with real life practice, through enhancing children or teenagers' ability to think critically by way of making observations, posing questions, drawing up hypotheses, planning and carrying out investigations, analysing data and therefore improve their decision making is an educational challenge. Learning…

Research methods modules have become a core component of a range of nursing and allied health professional educational programmes both at pre-qualifying, undergraduate level and at post-qualifying and Masters' level, in keeping with requirements of professional bodies. These courses are offered both on a full time basis and part time for qualified…

Metaphors are figures of speech in which a word or phrase that denotes a certain object or idea is applied to another word or phrase to imply some similarity between them. Due to their ability to make speaking and writing more lively and interesting, metaphors have always been popular among students. While metaphors provide significant enhancement…