Advances in graphical technology have now made it possible for us to interact with information in innovative ways, most notably by exploring multimedia environments and by manipulating three-dimensional virtual worlds. Many benefits have been claimed for this new kind of interactivity, a general assumption being that learning and cognitive processing are facilitated. We point out, however, that little is known about the cognitive value of any graphical representations, be they good old-fashioned (e.g. diagrams) or more advanced (e.g. animations, multimedia, virtual reality). In our paper, we critique the disparate literature on graphical representations, focusing on four representative studies. Our analysis reveals a fragmented and poorly understood account of how graphical representations work, exposing a number of assumptions and fallacies. As an alternative we propose a new agenda for graphical representation research. This builds on the nascent theoretical approach within cognitive science that analyses the role played by external representations in relation to internal mental ones. We outline some of the central properties of this relationship that are necessary for the processing of graphical representations. Finally, we consider how this analysis can inform the selection and design of both traditional and advanced forms of graphical technology.

: Distance learning is moving increasingly towards the use of computer technology as a means for distributing courseware, for demonstrations, and for asynchronous collaboration and discussion between students and tutors. Within a short time, however, the ability to communicate in real time using computers will exist for everyone. Multimedia conferencing over the Internet, using live audio, video and shared workspace, has until recently been restricted to the research domain. This paper describes a study in which this technology was used in a remote language teaching application. Small group tutorials were held over a number of months, in which students and tutors of foreign languages were separated by distance, but not by time. The paper discusses the evaluation issues and observations from these trials. 1 Introduction The ReLaTe (Remote Language Teaching over SuperJANET) project is a remote language teaching application which uses multicast multimedia conferencing technology over the...

The World Wide Web provides hypertext and multimedia based information across the Internet. Many applications have been developed on http servers. One important and novel use of the servers has been the provision of courseware facilities. This includes on-line lecture notes, exercises and their solutions as well as interactive packages suited primarily for teaching and demonstration packages. A variety of disciplines have benefitted notably C programming, X Windows, Computer Vision, Image Processing, Computer Graphics, Artificial Intelligence and Parallel Computing. This paper will address the issues of (i) implementing a variety of computer science courses and (ii) using the packages in a class environment. It also considers how best to provide information in such a hypertext based system and how interactive image processing packages can be developed. A suite of multimedia based tools have been developed to facilitate such systems and these will be described in the paper. In particul...

ABSTRACT The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as an integral part of the design of distance taught courses raises interesting challenges to our thinking about course design and learner support. These have typically been conceptualised as two complementary but distinct systems in distance education, characterised by different practices often carried out by different groups of staff. Where CMC is designed as an integral part of the course, with collaborative learning as essential to assessment and study, this separation breaks down. The design of online activities is integral to both learner support and the course content, with new possibilities for open and distance learning as a result. Where the learning group itself is a resource for study and personal development, it also becomes feasible to orientate courses and programmes towards local teams and communities. Online tutors play a key role and need to develop ‘the technology of conversation ’ and expertise in the design of activities, as part of their facilitator role. Posing the Question Open and distance learning (ODL) is characterised by a more diverse range of practices than ever before. Some of the traditional print and correspondence models

ABSTRACT The relationship between university students ’ perceptions of their academic environment, their approaches to study, and academic outcomes was investigated at both university and faculty levels. The responses of a large, cross-disciplinary sample of undergraduate students were analysed using higher order path and regression analyses, and the results con � rmed students ’ perceptions as in � uencing both ‘hard ’ (academic achievement) and ‘soft ’ (satisfaction, development of key skills) learning outcomes, both directly and mediated through their approaches to study. Perceptions of heavy workload and inappropriate assessment in � uenced students towards surface, and perceptions of good teaching towards deep, approaches to study. Students ’ perceptions of their current learning environment were a stronger predictor of learning outcomes at university than prior achievement at school. Protocols are proposed to guide more � ne-grained analysis of students ’ perceptions. This article seeks to make both a theoretical and practical contribution to the literature regarding the nature and impact of university students ’ perceptions of an academic environment on their learning approaches and outcomes. We will argue that the clarity and generalisability of previous research investigating the association between presage factors in a university learning environment and students ’ approaches to learning in that environment

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This paper presents an evaluation instrument for hypermedia courseware. Its design is based on an evaluation framework developed from the integration of a number of important issues emerged from research on instructional design and system evaluation the past fifteen years and is concerned with both social and practical acceptability of hypermedia courseware. The term social acceptability is related with the social basis of an educational system. Practical acceptability is examined through the evaluation of the following sectors: content, presentation and organization of the content, technical support and update processes and finally, the evaluation of learning. All sectors are equally important, as hypermedia courseware has to be simultaneously pedagogically and technically sound. The paper first discusses other evaluation efforts; next it introduces the evaluation framework and finally presents the evaluation instrument and suggests ways for the analysis of the results.

This article draws upon a wide range of research that provides insights into the process of innovation and change, to see what can be learnt to support the innovation of information and communication technology (ICT) in higher education.

This paper aims to inform readers of suggested directions for researching how mobile technology can enhance active student learning. These directions are informed by an online survey of our students in early 2007 and a contemporary literature search. We present the findings of our search of global best-practice in m-learning, gaps in the current literature are identified and five directions are suggested for 2007 m-learning research and development. We start discussing how to investigate these suggested directions. Our five suggested action research directions are all significant issues in m-learning and all need to be better investigated. If we are interested in enhancing student learning, a priority is to design mlearning and teaching strategies that involve active experiential learning. These strategies need to effectively support our learners ’ development of attitudes, understandings and skills in identified graduate attributes, curriculum objectives and stated learning outcomes. The development of wide support for an online body of knowledge of m-learning and teaching principles, strategies and effective, practical case-studies across all disciplines – an m-portal – is needed and can support and inform emerging national and international approaches to using mobile technologies to enhance learning. Guided by our findings and suggested research suggestions the authors hope to discuss, extend and develop collaborative partnerships for future action research, development and sponsorship at our ascilite 2007 conference workshop.

Online learning is now a reality, with distributed learning and blended learning becoming more widely used in Higher Education. Novel ways in which undergraduate and postgraduate learning material can be presented are being developed, and methods for helping students to learn online are needed, especially if we require them to collaborate with each other on learning activities. Agents to provide a supporting role for students have evolved from Artificial Intelligence research, and their strength lies in their ease of operation over networks as well as their ability to act in response to stimuli. In this paper an application of a software agent is described, aimed at supporting students working on team projects in the online learning environment. Online teamwork is problematical for a number of reasons, such as getting acquainted with team members, finding out about other team members ’ abilities, agreeing who should do which tasks, communications between team members and keeping up to date with progress that has been made on the project. Software agents have the ability to monitor progress and to offer advice by operating in the background, acting autonomously when the need arises. An agent prototype has been developed in Prolog to perform a limited set of functions to support