Maria João Loureiro

The Quality of Peer Assessment in a Wiki-Based Online Context: A Qualitative Study

Peer assessment (PA) provides opportunities for authentic assessment, autonomy and collaboration. Several authors advocate that students can benefit from PA and put forward the effects of PA on the students’ learning outcomes. Questions concerning the validity and reliability of PA and PA competences are also addressed by different researchers. This qualitative study is part of a wider project that seeks to develop and test evaluation and assessment strategies in online contexts. In a doctoral module, PA was used for summative and formative purposes. Formative PA aimed to give feedback about the ongoing group work, but also to increase online interaction between the different groups of students. The main module task was to write a literature review, about a selected topic, using a wiki. Criteria and indicators to assess the literature review were negotiated with the students. Different criteria were used to assess the quality of PA, such as, the use of the negotiated criteria, the adequacy of the chosen vocabulary or the provision of constructive feedback. The results show that overall the quality of PA can be improved. Groups did not provide sufficient criticism, questions and suggestions for improvement.

Hybrid User Centered Development Methodology: An Application to Educational Software Development

This paper describes a Hybrid User Centered Development Methodology (HUCDM). This is a simple, iterative and incremental development process that has as building blocks the principles of User Centered Design (UCD), specified in the International Organization for Standardization 9241-210. In its base lies the disciplined structure of development processes as well as practices and values from agile software development methods. The process consists of four main phases: planning, design, implementation and maintenance/operation. The prototyping and evaluation are carried out across the entire process. The HUCDM was implemented in an Educational Software Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) developer. The first feature based on this methodology was Courseware Sere. The quality of this educational resource has been internationally recognized. This Courseware was finalist in the national contest of multimedia products and thus got the interest of multinational companies such as BP - British Petroleum, which financed a new phase for the product development.

The dynamics of an online community of practice involving teachers and researchers

In the literature, communities of practice (CoPs) are recognised as having potential to promote teachers’ professional development. However, the study of the dynamics of CoPs with teachers and researchers, and their impact on teachers’ professional development, is still scarce. Contributing to fill this gap, this paper presents a single case study of the dynamics of a Portuguese online CoP, created during the research project IPEC. The messages posted by the group’s members in online fora (the most used communication tool) and descriptive statistics of the use of the project’s platform are presented and discussed. The analysis shows different levels of participation among the members over two school years. The group’s dynamic fits an adaptation of Wenger et al.’s model of CoP development stages. Finally, this analysis allowed the presentation of suggestions concerning teachers’ involvement in CoPs and their professional development.

Planning innovative teaching practices in a community of practice: a case study in the context of the project IPEC

This paper presents an analysis of the contribution of the collaborative work developed by a Portuguese community, involving teachers and researchers, and created in the context of the project |Investigacao e praticas lectivas em Educacao em Ciencia: Dinii¾¢micas de interaccao| (IPEC), to the development of innovative practices in formal education. The community members developed, implemented, and evaluated curricular modules about sustainability, through continued interactions in an online platform and some face-to-face meetings. The case study revealed that the community created challenging innovative practices, since we uncover: a) evidence of 13 of the 14 descriptors of innovative teaching practices taken into account for the analysis; b) disruptive practices when compared to traditional practices, presenting high risk-taking, large scope and complexity. In the final session, we present suggestions concerning design issues for web-based communities, such as the need to combine online interaction with face-to-face meetings.

Lessons Learned on Developing Educational Systems Using a Hybrid User Centered Methodology

This paper describes the lessons learned on the development of educational applications using a Hybrid User Centered Development Methodology (HUCDM). This is a simple, iterative and incremental development process that has as building blocks the principles of User Centered Design (UCD), specified in the International Organization for Standardization 9241-210 - Ergonomics of Human -System Interaction (210: Human -centered design for interactive systems), together with practices and values from agile software development methods. The process consists of four main stages: specification/planning, design, implementation and maintenance. Prototyping and evaluation are carried out across the entire process. By developing a application in a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) we were able to learn several lessons that may be useful for other educational software developers such as the need to involve the user in the evaluation (as verifier), but also to integrate him into the team, as informant or co-designer. This improves user satisfaction in comparison to involve the user only on the evaluation phase.

Edulabs AGIRE Project--Evaluation of ICT Integration in Teaching Strategies.

Abstract The AGIRE project, under the Edulab concept, aims to promote the adoption of innovative teaching practices. This paper reports the support strategies used to evaluate the teacher practices at the end of a teacher training course (TTC) and analyse its impact on teacher technology integration, using a design-based methodology. Teachers’ initial perception was gathered using an online questionnaire comprising ICT personal and professional competencies. The questionnaire results and the classroom observations showed that the majority of teachers were at the level of ICT adoption, before attending the TTC, reaching the adaptation level of integration of ICT, after the TTC. A variety of teaching strategies (flipped classroom, collaborative work, …) and technologies (interactive white boards, tablets, videos, …) were explored. The results sustain the thesis that, with proper support, ICT can be integrated in educational contexts in an innovative way and contribute to the development of teachers’ digital literacy.

Augmented Reality and Mobile Learning in a Smart Urban Park: Pupils’ Perceptions of the EduPARK Game

The EduPARK game is developed under a game-based learning methodology. It is designed for outdoor learning settings by employing geocaching principles and mobile Augmented Reality technologies. The game aims to develop users’ authentic and autonomous learning about diverse interdisciplinary themes in a smart urban park. It integrates learning guides for different target groups of basic education. The purpose of this paper is to present the game prototype development, which followed a design-based research approach. The evaluation of the game involved 74 pupils from two school levels (aged 9–10 and 13–14). They explored the game and their reactions were registered. Focus groups were conducted at the end of the experience. The evaluation allowed identifying positive characteristics of the game, such as immediate feedback and collaborative dynamics. Some questions included in the learning guides were perceived as difficult to understand and also some features came out to be considered for future improvements.

Junior Code Academy: A pilot project

The Junior Code Academy is a pilot project that aims to generalize the teaching of programming and code in schools in Portugal, promoting digital literacy and developing skills of problem solving. The presented qualitative pilot study involves students from the 1st cycle of basic education in three schools of Lisbon Municipality, comprising partnership with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and University of Aveiro. The main preliminary results emphasized that there is a high motivation and commitment of students towards programming, which potentially prevents early school dropout.