Kamila Takayama Lyra

Infographics or Graphics+Text: Which Material is Best for Robust Learning?

Infographic is a type of information visualization that uses graphic design to enhance human ability to identify patterns and trends. It is popularly used to support spread of information. Yet, there are few studies that investigate how infographics affect learning and how individual factors, such as learning styles and enjoyment of the information affect infographics perception. In this sense, this paper describes a case study performed in an online platform where 27 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to view infographics (n=14) and graphics+text (n=13) as learning materials about the same content. They also responded to questionnaires of enjoyment and learning styles. Our findings indicate that there is no correlation between learning styles and post-test scores. Furthermore, we did not find any difference regarding learning between students using graphics or infographics. Nevertheless, for learners using infographics, we found a significant and positive correlation between correct answers and the positive self-assessment of enjoyment/pleasure. We also identified that students who used infographics keep their acquired information longer than students who only used graphics+text, indicating that infographics can better support robust learning.

An agile project management experience: points of view of graduate students

One of the main challenges of teaching software engineering (SE) is providing students with meaningful experiences and skills that can be used in real-world projects. In order to overcome this challenge, the adoption of activities that go beyond theoretical classes has shown good results. For example, carry out collaborative hands-on projects that require students to extensively apply software engineering concepts may lead to better skills development. In this paper we present our experience over the first semester of 2017 in the SE course as part of our academic Masters of Science degree program at the Universidade de SÃčo Paulo (USP). A group of 5 graduate students managed teams of 8 to 11 undergraduate students during a semester divided in four phases of project development. The projects were developed using the agile methods SCRUM and Feature Driven Development. Both graduate and undergraduate students with different levels of knowledge were evaluated in all phases. We explain the dynamics of the teams, and discuss both undergraduate and graduate students experiences. The graduate students reported that the experience was successful and very important to improve their management skills.

Infográficos versus Materiais de Aprendizagem Tradicionais: uma Investigação Empírica

Infografico e um tipo popular de visualizacao de informacao que utiliza de apelo visual para tornar a transmissao de informacao rapida e efetiva. No entanto, ainda existem poucos trabalhos empiricos que investiguem sua interferencia no processo de aprendizagem e interacao com as caracteristicas estilos de aprendizagem e satisfacao. Nesse contexto, este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a eficacia dos infograficos em comparacao com os materiais de aprendizagem tradicionais (grafico e texto). Para isso, foi executado um experimento com 54 alunos de graduacao. Os alunos foram distribuidos entre os tres tipos de materiais e avaliados em relacao ao aprendizado, retencao de conhecimento e satisfacao pessoal. Os resultados mostraram que os infograficos foram tao bons para a aprendizagem e retencao de conhecimento quanto os materiais tradicionais.