Facilitating Group Analysis of Two Case Studies Utilising Peer Tutoring: Comparison of Tasks and Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fong, Lin Siew

2016-01-01

Peer-tutoring sessions of two groups of advanced diploma in financial accounting students with mixed proficiency were analysed thoroughly in this study. Numerous studies in peer tutoring have produced favourable results to both tutors and tutees due to the scaffolding process which promotes effective learning. However, there is a lack of studies…

Contribution of Equal-Sign Instruction beyond Word-Problem Tutoring for Third-Grade Students with Mathematics Difficulty.

PubMed

Powell, Sarah R; Fuchs, Lynn S

2010-05-01

Elementary school students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as an operational rather than a relational symbol. Such misunderstanding is problematic because solving equations with missing numbers may be important for higher-order mathematics skills including word problems. Research indicates equal-sign instruction can alter how typically-developing students use the equal sign, but no study has examined effects for students with mathematics difficulty (MD) or how equal-sign instruction contributes to word-problem skill for students with or without MD. The present study assessed the efficacy of equal-sign instruction within word-problem tutoring. Third-grade students with MD (n = 80) were assigned to word-problem tutoring, word-problem tutoring plus equal-sign instruction (combined) tutoring, or no-tutoring control. Combined tutoring produced better improvement on equal sign tasks and open equations compared to the other 2 conditions. On certain forms of word problems, combined tutoring but not word-problem tutoring alone produced better improvement than control. When compared at posttest to 3(rd)-grade students without MD on equal sign tasks and open equations, only combined tutoring students with MD performed comparably.

Tutoring at a Distance, Online Tutoring and Tutoring in Second Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkridge, David; Wheeler, Matthew

2010-01-01

Research into tutoring at a distance has a fairly long history and the functions of tutors in distance education institutions are well understood. Over the past 20 years research into online tutoring has advanced significantly as such institutions have "gone electronic": in this paper we cite published research from the UK Open…

Development of an Integrated Human Factors Toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Resnick, Marc L.

2003-01-01

An effective integration of human abilities and limitations is crucial to the success of all NASA missions. The Integrated Human Factors Toolkit facilitates this integration by assisting system designers and analysts to select the human factors tools that are most appropriate for the needs of each project. The HF Toolkit contains information about a broad variety of human factors tools addressing human requirements in the physical, information processing and human reliability domains. Analysis of each tool includes consideration of the most appropriate design stage, the amount of expertise in human factors that is required, the amount of experience with the tool and the target job tasks that are needed, and other factors that are critical for successful use of the tool. The benefits of the Toolkit include improved safety, reliability and effectiveness of NASA systems throughout the agency. This report outlines the initial stages of development for the Integrated Human Factors Toolkit.

A New Paradigm for Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Example-Tracing Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aleven, Vincent; McLaren, Bruce M.; Sewall, Jonathan; Koedinger, Kenneth R.

2009-01-01

The Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT) support creation of a novel type of tutors called example-tracing tutors. Unlike other types of ITSs (e.g., model-tracing tutors, constraint-based tutors), example-tracing tutors evaluate student behavior by flexibly comparing it against generalized examples of problem-solving behavior. Example-tracing…

Development of an Assistance Environment for Tutors Based on a Co-Adaptive Design Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lavoue, Elise; George, Sebastien; Prevot, Patrick

2012-01-01

In this article, we present a co-adaptive design approach named TE-Cap (Tutoring Experience Capitalisation) that we applied for the development of an assistance environment for tutors. Since tasks assigned to tutors in educational contexts are not well defined, we are developing an environment which responds to needs which are not precisely…

Contribution of Equal-Sign Instruction beyond Word-Problem Tutoring for Third-Grade Students with Mathematics Difficulty

PubMed Central

Powell, Sarah R.; Fuchs, Lynn S.

2010-01-01

Elementary school students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as an operational rather than a relational symbol. Such misunderstanding is problematic because solving equations with missing numbers may be important for higher-order mathematics skills including word problems. Research indicates equal-sign instruction can alter how typically-developing students use the equal sign, but no study has examined effects for students with mathematics difficulty (MD) or how equal-sign instruction contributes to word-problem skill for students with or without MD. The present study assessed the efficacy of equal-sign instruction within word-problem tutoring. Third-grade students with MD (n = 80) were assigned to word-problem tutoring, word-problem tutoring plus equal-sign instruction (combined) tutoring, or no-tutoring control. Combined tutoring produced better improvement on equal sign tasks and open equations compared to the other 2 conditions. On certain forms of word problems, combined tutoring but not word-problem tutoring alone produced better improvement than control. When compared at posttest to 3rd-grade students without MD on equal sign tasks and open equations, only combined tutoring students with MD performed comparably. PMID:20640240

Tutoring electronic troubleshooting in a simulated maintenance work environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gott, Sherrie P.

1987-01-01

A series of intelligent tutoring systems, or intelligent maintenance simulators, is being developed based on expert and novice problem solving data. A graded series of authentic troubleshooting problems provides the curriculum, and adaptive instructional treatments foster active learning in trainees who engage in extensive fault isolation practice and thus in conditionalizing what they know. A proof of concept training study involving human tutoring was conducted as a precursor to the computer tutors to assess this integrated, problem based approach to task analysis and instruction. Statistically significant improvements in apprentice technicians' troubleshooting efficiency were achieved after approximately six hours of training.

Peer tutoring among elementary students: educational benefits to the tutor1

PubMed Central

Dineen, John P.; Clark, Hewitt B.; Risley, Todd R.

1977-01-01

To determine whether tutoring might be academically beneficial to the tutor, this study investigated the acquisition of spelling words by three elementary students in a peer tutoring program. The experimental design allowed a simultaneous comparison of each child's gain in performance on comparable word lists on which the child tutored another child, was tutored by another child, or neither gave nor received tutoring. The children's spelling improved nearly an equivalent amount on those words on which they tutored another child as on the words on which they were tutored; no such change was noted on the words on which they neither gave nor received tutoring. These findings, that peer tutoring is profitable for the tutor as well as the tutee, provide a basis for recommending peer tutoring as one method of individualizing education. PMID:16795552

Peer-Tutoring: What's in It for the Tutor?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galbraith, Jonathan; Winterbottom, Mark

2011-01-01

Drawing on role theory and socio-constructivist ideas about learning, this study explores how peer-tutoring can support tutors' learning. The sample comprised ten 16-17-year-old biology tutors, working with twenty-one 14-15-year-old students from a science class over eight weeks. Data were collected through an online wiki, tutor interviews, paired…

The Relationship of Sibling Caretaking and Attentiveness to a Peer Tutor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallimore, Ronald; And Others

1978-01-01

Boys from families who assigned child care tasks to male siblings were more likely to be attentive in a dyadic peer-tutoring session. General classroom attentiveness was also highly correlated with attentiveness to a peer tutor and to male care of siblings. Girl tutee attentiveness and female care of siblings were not correlated. (Author/CP)

Cognitive Demand of Model Tracing Tutor Tasks: Conceptualizing and Predicting How Deeply Students Engage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kessler, Aaron M.; Stein, Mary Kay; Schunn, Christian D.

2015-01-01

Model tracing tutors represent a technology designed to mimic key elements of one-on-one human tutoring. We examine the situations in which such supportive computer technologies may devolve into mindless student work with little conceptual understanding or student development. To analyze the support of student intellectual work in the model…

Tutoring Strategies: A Case Study Comparing Learning Center Tutors and Academic Department Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailey, Geoffrey K.

2010-01-01

Peer tutoring at the postsecondary level has been studied extensively, particularly over the last twenty years. Peer tutoring programs are common across institutional type and size in the United States (Boylan, Bonham, Bliss, & Saxon, 1995; Maxwell, 2001) given students' preferences for tutors who share age and status similarity (Cohen, 1986;…

Example-Tracing Tutors: Intelligent Tutor Development for Non-Programmers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aleven, Vincent; McLaren, Bruce M.; Sewall, Jonathan; van Velsen, Martin; Popescu, Octav; Demi, Sandra; Ringenberg, Michael; Koedinger, Kenneth R.

2016-01-01

In 2009, we reported on a new Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) technology, example-tracing tutors, that can be built without programming using the Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT). Creating example-tracing tutors was shown to be 4-8 times as cost-effective as estimates for ITS development from the literature. Since 2009, CTAT and its…

Tutor Training Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gill, Wanda E.

A tutor training program manual that is used at Bowie State College is presented. The manual covers the following: tutoring program objectives; general tutoring principles; general procedures the tutor should follow; including contacting the student and establishing rapport, guidelines concerning the tutors' attitudes and behavior; a few points to…

The FLOW Tutor: Schemas for Tutoring.

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-05-01

1 ~~ Donald R. Gentner Donald A . Norm an THE FLOW TUTOR: SCHEM AS FOR TUTORING H D D C ss~~~ UNIVERSiTY OF CALIFO RNIA , SAN DIEGO LA JOLLA...individualized in— struction , instructional theory, model of the student , representation of information , sc ’ nema , sema ntic ne twork , teaching...I ~~r giving adv ice to a studen t learning ~ simp1e 1~computer language .The tutor has a schema—based knowledge structure

Validation of an Evaluation Tutoring Task Scale at the University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sáiz-Manzanares, María Consuelo; Bol-Arreba, Alfredo; Payo-Hernanz, René Jesús

2014-01-01

Introduction: Recent investigations have emphasized the need for university teachers to develop tutorial programs for students at university. Many universities are committed to broadening research on university teaching that will sharpen academic performance and levels of student satisfaction. Tutoring programs improve the development of the…

The Effect of Tutoring With Nonstandard Equations for Students With Mathematics Difficulty.

PubMed

Powell, Sarah R; Driver, Melissa K; Julian, Tyler E

2015-01-01

Students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as operational instead of relational. Research indicates misinterpretation of the equal sign occurs because students receive relatively little exposure to equations that promote relational understanding of the equal sign. No study, however, has examined effects of nonstandard equations on the equation solving and equal-sign understanding of students with mathematics difficulty (MD). In the present study, second-grade students with MD (n = 51) were randomly assigned to standard equations tutoring, combined tutoring (standard and nonstandard equations), and no-tutoring control. Combined tutoring students demonstrated greater gains on equation-solving assessments and equal-sign tasks compared to the other two conditions. Standard tutoring students demonstrated improved skill on equation solving over control students, but combined tutoring students' performance gains were significantly larger. Results indicate that exposure to and practice with nonstandard equations positively influence student understanding of the equal sign. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

E-Tutorial Support for Collaborative Online Learning: An Explorative Study on Experienced and Inexperienced E-Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kopp, Birgitta; Matteucci, Maria Cristina; Tomasetto, Carlo

2012-01-01

The e-tutor plays a major role in supporting virtual collaborative learning, as he/she supervises learners in collaboratively solving tasks, acquiring new skills, and applying new knowledge. This study is aimed at gaining further insights into the daily support practices of e-tutors. Seventy-six e-tutors from 17 different European countries were…

My Science Tutor: A Conversational Multimedia Virtual Tutor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward, Wayne; Cole, Ron; Bolaños, Daniel; Buchenroth-Martin, Cindy; Svirsky, Edward; Weston, Tim

2013-01-01

My Science Tutor (MyST) is an intelligent tutoring system designed to improve science learning by elementary school students through conversational dialogs with a virtual science tutor in an interactive multimedia environment. Marni, a lifelike 3-D character, engages individual students in spoken dialogs following classroom investigations using…

Reliable Assessment with CyberTutor, a Web-Based Homework Tutor.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pritchard, David E.; Morote, Elsa-Sofia

This paper demonstrates that an electronic tutoring program can collect data that enables a far more reliable assessment of students' skills than a standard examination. Socratic electronic homework tutor, CyberTutor can integrate effectively instruction and assessment. CyberTutor assessment has about 62 times less variance due to random test…

Motivational and metacognitive feedback in SQL-Tutor*

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hull, Alison; du Boulay, Benedict

2015-04-01

Motivation and metacognition are strongly intertwined, with learners high in self-efficacy more likely to use a variety of self-regulatory learning strategies, as well as to persist longer on challenging tasks. The aim of the research was to improve the learner's focus on the process and experience of problem-solving while using an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) and including motivational and metacognitive feedback based on the learner's past states and experiences. An existing ITS, SQL-Tutor, was used with first-year undergraduates studying a database module. The study used two versions of SQL-Tutor: the Control group used a base version providing domain feedback and the Study group used an extended version that also provided motivational and metacognitive feedback. This paper summarises the pre- and post-process results. Comparisons between groups showed some differing trends both in learning outcomes and behaviour in favour of the Study group.

Kekule.js: An Open Source JavaScript Chemoinformatics Toolkit.

PubMed

Jiang, Chen; Jin, Xi; Dong, Ying; Chen, Ming

2016-06-27

Kekule.js is an open-source, object-oriented JavaScript toolkit for chemoinformatics. It provides methods for many common tasks in molecular informatics, including chemical data input/output (I/O), two- and three-dimensional (2D/3D) rendering of chemical structure, stereo identification, ring perception, structure comparison, and substructure search. Encapsulated widgets to display and edit chemical structures directly in web context are also supplied. Developed with web standards, the toolkit is ideal for building chemoinformatics applications over the Internet. Moreover, it is highly platform-independent and can also be used in desktop or mobile environments. Some initial applications, such as plugins for inputting chemical structures on the web and uses in chemistry education, have been developed based on the toolkit.

Is Tutoring Teaching? Exploring Tutoring's Potential to Improve Mathematics Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasche, Alexander N.

2017-01-01

This study investigated the tutoring practices of mathematics tutors working in one university tutoring center and the corresponding rationale exhibited by the mathematics tutors. This study illustrates how the tutoring practices of mathematics tutors align with the Eight Mathematics Teaching Practices outlined in NCTM's recent publication…

Development of a Didactical Training Concept for Peer Tutors in Gross Anatomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvarez, Simone; Nikendei, Christoph; Schultz, Jobst-Hendrik

2017-01-01

Even though peer tutors are often used in gross anatomy courses, research in the field is rather a subject of the last two decades. This is especially true about the didactical challenges these types of peer tutors experience during their tutorials and about how they are prepared for the task. The aim of the presented study was to learn about the…

Automatic Detection of Tutoring Styles Based on Tutors' Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bendjebar, Safia; Lafifi, Yacine; Zedadra, Amina

2016-01-01

In e-learning systems, tutors have a significant impact on learners' life to increase their knowledge level and to make the learning process more effective. They are characterized by different features. Therefore, identifying tutoring styles is a critical step in understanding the preference of tutors on how to organize and help the learners. In…

Tutoring Center Effectiveness: The Effect of Drop-In Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Erik

2010-01-01

While tutoring as a whole has been demonstrated to improve student learning across a variety of subjects and age groups, there is little published evidence for the effectiveness of drop-in tutoring at the undergraduate level. This type of tutoring can be derided as homework help; however, it is clear from this study that students who made use of…

Achievement Motivational Characteristics of University Foreign Language Learners: From the Classroom to the Tutoring Table

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Paul H.

2008-01-01

What influences who seeks foreign language tutoring? Using expectancy value theory, the present study researches the characteristics of university foreign language students in the language classroom (n = 258) and seeking tutoring (n = 29). Students' performance and mastery goal orientations, achievement task values, self-efficacy for foreign…

Motivational Scaffolding, Politeness, and Writing Center Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackiewicz, Jo; Thompson, Isabelle

2013-01-01

Writing center tutors know that improving writing skills requires sustained effort over a long period of time. They also know that motivation--the drive to actively invest in sustained effort toward a goal--is essential for writing improvement. Because motivation can direct attention toward particular tasks and increase both effort and…

Cinfony – combining Open Source cheminformatics toolkits behind a common interface

PubMed Central

O'Boyle, Noel M; Hutchison, Geoffrey R

2008-01-01

Background Open Source cheminformatics toolkits such as OpenBabel, the CDK and the RDKit share the same core functionality but support different sets of file formats and forcefields, and calculate different fingerprints and descriptors. Despite their complementary features, using these toolkits in the same program is difficult as they are implemented in different languages (C++ versus Java), have different underlying chemical models and have different application programming interfaces (APIs). Results We describe Cinfony, a Python module that presents a common interface to all three of these toolkits, allowing the user to easily combine methods and results from any of the toolkits. In general, the run time of the Cinfony modules is almost as fast as accessing the underlying toolkits directly from C++ or Java, but Cinfony makes it much easier to carry out common tasks in cheminformatics such as reading file formats and calculating descriptors. Conclusion By providing a simplified interface and improving interoperability, Cinfony makes it easy to combine complementary features of OpenBabel, the CDK and the RDKit. PMID:19055766

Exploring the Relationships between Perceptions of Tutoring and Tutoring Behaviours: A Focus on Graduate Students Serving as Peer Tutors to College-Level Chemistry Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Velasco, Jonathan B.; Stains, Marilyne

2015-01-01

It has been established that both tutors and tutees gain from tutoring sessions. However, tutors' benefits may be enhanced or limited depending on the type of behaviours they perform during the tutoring sessions. Although behaviours enhancing both tutor and tutee learning can be promoted by training, generalized tutor training models that are…

Strategic Tutor Monitoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chee-kwong, Kenneth Chao

1996-01-01

Discusses effective tutor monitoring strategies based on experiences at the Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong. Highlights include key performance and strategic control points; situational factors, including tutor expectations and relevant culture; Theory X versus Theory Y leadership theories; and monitoring relationships with tutors. (LRW)

Coaching Tutors: An Instrumental Case Study on Testing an Integrated Framework for Tutoring Sessions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holland, Alicia L.; Grant, Chris; Donthamsetty, Reshema

2017-01-01

The objective for the current qualitative case study was to examine participants' perceptions on the tutor coaching and session review frameworks. The location of the study was at the tutor coaches' place of business. At the beginning of the study, tutor coaches were trained on how to implement the tutoring coaching framework with their tutors,…

Peer tutoring for college students with learning disabilities: perceptions of tutors and tutees.

PubMed

Vogel, Gila; Fresko, Barbara; Wertheim, Cheruta

2007-01-01

Peer tutoring is a commonly provided support service for students with learning disabilities (LD) in institutions of higher education. A large-scale survey was conducted to evaluate the PERACH peer tutoring project for students with LD at 25 universities, regional colleges, and teacher training colleges in Israel. The purpose of the study was to understand the tutoring process from the point of view of both tutees and tutors with respect to 5 main areas: tutees' needs, focus of tutoring activities, difficulties surrounding the tutoring endeavor, importance of similar study experiences, and satisfaction with the project. It is our supposition that major discrepancies in perceptions are likely to undermine the effectiveness of the tutoring. Similarities and differences in perceptions were identified, and implications that can be useful in guiding service providers are discussed.

AutoTutor and Family: A Review of 17 Years of Natural Language Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nye, Benjamin D.; Graesser, Arthur C.; Hu, Xiangen

2014-01-01

AutoTutor is a natural language tutoring system that has produced learning gains across multiple domains (e.g., computer literacy, physics, critical thinking). In this paper, we review the development, key research findings, and systems that have evolved from AutoTutor. First, the rationale for developing AutoTutor is outlined and the advantages…

Teaching the Teacher: Tutoring SimStudent Leads to More Effective Cognitive Tutor Authoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matsuda, Noboru; Cohen, William W.; Koedinger, Kenneth R.

2015-01-01

SimStudent is a machine-learning agent initially developed to help novice authors to create cognitive tutors without heavy programming. Integrated into an existing suite of software tools called Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT), SimStudent helps authors to create an expert model for a cognitive tutor by tutoring SimStudent on how to solve…

Tribal Green Building Toolkit

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This Tribal Green Building Toolkit (Toolkit) is designed to help tribal officials, community members, planners, developers, and architects develop and adopt building codes to support green building practices. Anyone can use this toolkit!

EarthTutor: An Interactive Intelligent Tutoring System for Remote Sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bell, A. M.; Parton, K.; Smith, E.

2005-12-01

Earth science classes in colleges and high schools use a variety of satellite image processing software to teach earth science and remote sensing principles. However, current tutorials for image processing software are often paper-based or lecture-based and do not take advantage of the full potential of the computer context to teach, immerse, and stimulate students. We present EarthTutor, an adaptive, interactive Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) being built for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) that is integrated directly with an image processing application. The system aims to foster the use of satellite imagery in classrooms and encourage inquiry-based, hands-on earth science scientific study by providing students with an engaging imagery analysis learning environment. EarthTutor's software is available as a plug-in to ImageJ, a free image processing system developed by the NIH (National Institute of Health). Since it is written in Java, it can be run on almost any platform and also as an applet from the Web. Labs developed for EarthTutor combine lesson content (such as HTML web pages) with interactive activities and questions. In each lab the student learns to measure, calibrate, color, slice, plot and otherwise process and analyze earth science imagery. During the activities, EarthTutor monitors students closely as they work, which allows it to provide immediate feedback that is customized to a particular student's needs. As the student moves through the labs, EarthTutor assesses the student, and tailors the presentation of the content to a student's demonstrated skill level. EarthTutor's adaptive approach is based on emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) research. Bayesian networks are employed to model a student's proficiency with different earth science and image processing concepts. Agent behaviors are used to track the student's progress through activities and provide guidance when a student encounters difficulty. Through individual

What Positive Impacts Does Peer Tutoring Have upon the Peer Tutors at SQU?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al kharusi, Dhafra

2016-01-01

This paper attempts to provide an answer to the question: What positive impacts does peer tutoring have upon the peer tutors at SQU? It is conducted in the LC Tutorial Centre at Sultan Qaboos University where senior English language students are hired to tutor their peers who are struggling with the language. It sheds light on the peer tutors'…

Peer tutoring in a medical school: perceptions of tutors and tutees.

PubMed

Burgess, Annette; Dornan, Tim; Clarke, Antonia J; Menezes, Audrey; Mellis, Craig

2016-03-08

Peer tutoring has been described as "people from similar social groupings who are not professional teachers helping each other to learn and learning themselves by teaching". Peer tutoring is well accepted as a source of support in many medical curricula, where participation and learning involve a process of socialisation. Peer tutoring can ease the transition of the junior students from the university class environment to the hospital workplace. In this paper, we apply the Experienced Based Learning (ExBL) model to explore medical students' perceptions of their experience of taking part in a newly established peer tutoring program at a hospital based clinical school. In 2014, all students at Sydney Medical School - Central, located at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital were invited to voluntarily participate in the peer tutoring program. Year 3 students (n = 46) were invited to act as tutors for Year 1 students (n = 50), and Year 4 students (n = 60) were invited to act as tutors for Year 2 students (n = 51). Similarly, the 'tutees' were invited to take part on a voluntary basis. Students were invited to attend focus groups, which were held at the end of the program. Framework analysis was used to code and categorise data into themes. In total, 108/207 (52 %) students participated in the program. A total of 42/106 (40 %) of Year 3 and 4 students took part as tutors; and of 66/101 (65 %) of Year 1 and 2 students took part as tutees. Five focus groups were held, with 50/108 (46 %) of students voluntarily participating. Senior students (tutors) valued the opportunity to practice and improve their medical knowledge and teaching skills. Junior students (tutees) valued the opportunity for additional practice and patient interaction, within a relaxed, small group learning environment. Students perceived the peer tutoring program as affording opportunities not otherwise available within the curriculum. The peer teaching program provided a framework within the

Tutoring Online Tutors: Using Digital Badges to Encourage the Development of Online Tutoring Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hrastinski, Stefan; Cleveland-Innes, Martha; Stenbom, Stefan

2018-01-01

Online tutors play a critical role in e-learning and need to have an appropriate set of skills in addition to subject matter expertise. This paper explores how digital badges can be used to encourage the development of online tutoring skills. Based on previous research, we defined three digital badges, which are examples of essential tutoring…

Perceptions of Tutoring Roles and Psychological Distance among Instructors, Tutors and Students at a Korean University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Hye-Jung; Hong, Youngil; Choi, Hyoseon

2017-01-01

This study explores issues related to the tutor's role when initiating tutoring as an institutional strategy at a conventional university. Based on a pilot tutoring program implemented in four college courses, we investigated the perceptions of instructors, tutors and students regarding the role of tutoring and whether it affected the…

NSI security task: Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tencati, Ron

1991-01-01

An overview is presented of the NASA Science Internet (NSI) security task. The task includes the following: policies and security documentation; risk analysis and management; computer emergency response team; incident handling; toolkit development; user consulting; and working groups, conferences, and committees.

The Perceived Success of Tutoring Students with Learning Disabilities: Relations to Tutee and Tutoring Variables

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michael, Rinat

2016-01-01

The current study examined the contribution of two types of variables to the perceived success of a tutoring project for college students with learning disabilities (LD): tutoring-related variables (the degree of engagement in different tutoring activities and difficulties encountered during tutoring), and tutee-related variables (learning…

Rx for Tutor Training.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rubenstein, Ilene; And Others

Tutor training programs in composition which emphasize interpersonal skills while offering concentrated correctness doses of mechanics and grammar are inherently limiting. While interpersonal skills are important, they only superficially address the complex situation of tutoring. A prescription for a healthy tutor program, one which would allow…

A Comparison of the Effects of Fantasy Play Tutoring and Skills Tutoring in Nursery Classes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Peter K.; And Others

1981-01-01

Pre, post, and follow-up assessments showed that two tutoring programs (fantasy play tutoring and skill tutoring) had equal impact on the development of nursery school children's cognitive and linguistic development abilities. However, fantasy play tutoring showed a greater potential for maintaining or increasing social participation. (Author/MP)

Characteristics of an ITS that evolves from tutor to operator's assistant. [intelligent tutoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chu, R. W.; Mitchell, C. M.; Govindaraj, T.

1989-01-01

This paper discusses the motivation and goals of a research project which addresses the problems and issues of operator training in complex engineering sytems. The research proposes a tutor/aid paradigm for the design of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that evolves from a tutor to an operator's assistant for supervisory control of complex dynamic systems. Characteristics of an intelligent tutoring/aiding system are identified with respect to the representation of domain knowledge, the tutor's pedagogical structure, and the student knowledge representation. The research represents a first step in the design of an intelligent complex dynamic systems.

Toward an Efficient Icing CFD Process Using an Interactive Software Toolkit: Smagglce 2D

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vickerman, Mary B.; Choo, Yung K.; Schilling, Herbert W.; Baez, Marivell; Braun, Donald C.; Cotton, Barbara J.

2001-01-01

Two-dimensional CID analysis for iced airfoils can be a labor-intensive task. The software toolkit SmaggIce 2D is being developed to help streamline the CID process and provide the unique features needed for icing. When complete, it will include a combination of partially automated and fully interactive tools for all aspects of the tasks leading up to the flow analysis: geometry preparation, domain decomposition. block boundary demoralization. gridding, and linking with a flow solver. It also includes tools to perform ice shape characterization, an important aid in determining the relationship between ice characteristics and their effects on aerodynamic performance. Completed tools, work-in-progress, and planned features of the software toolkit are presented here.

TOOLKIT, Version 2. 0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schroeder, E.; Bagot, B.; McNeill, R.L.

1990-05-09

The purpose of this User's Guide is to show by example many of the features of Toolkit II. Some examples will be copies of screens as they appear while running the Toolkit. Other examples will show what the user should enter in various situations; in these instances, what the computer asserts will be in boldface and what the user responds will be in regular type. The User's Guide is divided into four sections. The first section, FOCUS Databases'', will give a broad overview of the Focus administrative databases that are available on the VAX; easy-to-use reports are available for mostmore » of them in the Toolkit. The second section, Getting Started'', will cover the steps necessary to log onto the Computer Center VAX cluster and how to start Focus and the Toolkit. The third section, Using the Toolkit'', will discuss some of the features in the Toolkit -- the available reports and how to access them, as well as some utilities. The fourth section, Helpful Hints'', will cover some useful facts about the VAX and Focus as well as some of the more common problems that can occur. The Toolkit is not set in concrete but is continually being revised and improved. If you have any opinions as to changes that you would like to see made to the Toolkit or new features that you would like included, please let us know. Since we do try to respond to the needs of the user and make periodic improvement to the Toolkit, this User's Guide may not correspond exactly to what is available in the computer. In general, changes are made to provide new options or features; rarely is an existing feature deleted.« less

Does it Make a Difference? Investigating the Assessment Accuracy of Teacher Tutors and Student Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herppich, Stephanie; Wittwer, Jorg; Nuckles, Matthias; Renkl, Alexander

2013-01-01

Tutors often have difficulty with accurately assessing a tutee's understanding. However, little is known about whether the professional expertise of tutors influences their assessment accuracy. In this study, the authors examined the accuracy with which 21 teacher tutors and 25 student tutors assessed a tutee's understanding of the human…

The Revitalized Tutoring Center

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koselak, Jeremy

2017-01-01

One high-leverage strategy rooted in a strong research base--the revitalized tutoring center--provides a wealth of opportunity to students who may be otherwise underserved. This embedded, open-all-day tutoring center supports collaborative teacher teams by using peer tutors and community volunteers. By centralizing resources and providing supports…

Intelligent tutoring and aiding in satellite ground control. Ph.D. Thesis - Georgia Inst. of Tech., 1991

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chu, Rose W.; Mitchell, Christine M.

1993-01-01

In supervisory control systems such as satellite ground control, there is a need for human-centered automation where the focus is to understand and enhance the human-system interaction experience in the complex task environment. Operator support in the form of off-line intelligent tutoring and on-line intelligent aiding is one approach towards this effort. The tutor/aid paradigm is proposed here as a design approach that integrates the two aspects of operator support in one system for technically oriented adults in complex domains. This paper also presents GT-VITA, a proof-of-concept graphical, interactive, intelligent tutoring system that is a first attempt to illustrate the tutoring aspect of the tutor/aid paradigm in the domain of satellite ground control. Evaluation on GT-VITA is conducted with NASA personnel with very positive results. GT-VITA is presented being fielded as it is at Goddard Space Flight Center.

A Typology of Approaches to Peer Tutoring: Unraveling Peer Tutors' Behavioural Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berghmans, Inneke; Neckebroeck, Fanny; Dochy, Filip; Struyven, Katrien

2013-01-01

Peer tutors' behaviour has been stated to have the power to create and increase learning opportunities within peer tutoring programs. However, previous studies have shown that peer tutors struggle to adopt facilitative and constructivist-oriented strategies, as they lean more towards directive and knowledge-telling strategies. This study aims…

Tutors for a University.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Styler, W. E.

The pamphlet describes the system developed at Hull University for providing tutors for adult education, and analyzes the use of full-time and part-time tutors. These tutors are responsible for teaching courses, generally shorter in duration than a standard academic course, and geared for adults not in school rather than for university students.…

The SCRAM tool-kit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tamir, David; Flanigan, Lee A.; Weeks, Jack L.; Siewert, Thomas A.; Kimbrough, Andrew G.; Mcclure, Sidney R.

1994-01-01

This paper proposes a new series of on-orbit capabilities to support the near-term Hubble Space Telescope, Extended Duration Orbiter, Long Duration Orbiter, Space Station Freedom, other orbital platforms, and even the future manned Lunar/Mars missions. These proposed capabilities form a toolkit termed Space Construction, Repair, and Maintenance (SCRAM). SCRAM addresses both intra-Vehicular Activity (IVA) and Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) needs. SCRAM provides a variety of tools which enable welding, brazing, cutting, coating, heating, and cleaning, as well as corresponding nondestructive examination. Near-term IVA-SCRAM applications include repair and modification to fluid lines, structure, and laboratory equipment inside a shirt-sleeve environment (i.e. inside Spacelab or Space Station). Near-term EVA-SCRAM applications include construction of fluid lines and structural members, repair of punctures by orbital debris, refurbishment of surfaces eroded by contaminants. The SCRAM tool-kit also promises future EVA applications involving mass production tasks automated by robotics and artificial intelligence, for construction of large truss, aerobrake, and nuclear reactor shadow shields structures. The leading candidate tool processes for SCRAM, currently undergoing research and development, include Electron Beam, Gas Tungsten Arc, Plasma Arc, and Laser Beam. A series of strategic space flight experiments would make SCRAM available to help conquer the space frontier.

Peer Tutoring: A Training and Facilitation Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pirini, Jesse

2017-01-01

Students can make huge gains in academic grades and confidence with the help of peer tutoring. This book provides practical, research-based strategies for anyone wanting to run a peer tutoring programme or to improve their own tutoring practice. The book focuses on two key components of tutoring: the tutoring relationship and tutoring tools. The…

Play and Non-Play Tutoring in Pre-School Children: Is It Play or Tutoring Which Matters?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, P. K.; Syddall, Susan

1978-01-01

Previous studies on fantasy play tutoring are reviewed and research reported on the effect of the adult-child contact in this situation. Matched samples of preschoolers received either play or skills tutoring with equivalent tutor verbal contact. In these circumstances, differential advantages to the play-tutored children were few. (SJL)

Cross-Age Peer Tutors in Asynchronous Discussion Groups: Studying the Impact of Tutors Labelling Their Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Smet, M.; Van Keer, H.; Valcke, M.

2008-01-01

Cross-age tutors were randomly assigned to one of the three tutor training conditions distinguished for the current study: (1) the labelling experimental condition, characterized by requirements to label their tutor interventions, based on the e-moderating model of Salmon; (2) the non-labelling experimental condition, focusing on tutor's acting…

Hypermedia and intelligent tutoring applications in a mission operations environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ames, Troy; Baker, Clifford

1990-01-01

Hypermedia, hypertext and Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) applications to support all phases of mission operations are investigated. The application of hypermedia and ITS technology to improve system performance and safety in supervisory control is described - with an emphasis on modeling operator's intentions in the form of goals, plans, tasks, and actions. Review of hypermedia and ITS technology is presented as may be applied to the tutoring of command and control languages. Hypertext based ITS is developed to train flight operation teams and System Test and Operation Language (STOL). Specific hypermedia and ITS application areas are highlighted, including: computer aided instruction of flight operation teams (STOL ITS) and control center software development tools (CHIMES and STOL Certification Tool).

The Comprehension Toolkit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, Stephanie; Goudvis, Anne

2005-01-01

"The Comprehension Toolkit" focuses on reading, writing, talking, listening, and investigating, to deepen understanding of nonfiction texts. With a focus on strategic thinking, this toolkit's lessons provide a foundation for developing independent readers and learners. It also provides an alternative to the traditional assign and correct…

Effects of a Peer Tutor Training Program on Tutors and Tutees with Severe Disabilities in Adapted Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vonlintel, Drew James

2015-01-01

This dissertation examines the efficacy of peer tutor training in adapted physical education (APE). A peer tutor evaluation form was created to assess the skills of untrained peer tutors (n = 12). Once skills were assessed, a peer tutor training protocol was created. The protocol was implemented in a peer tutor training program. After peer tutors…

JAVA Stereo Display Toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edmonds, Karina

2008-01-01

This toolkit provides a common interface for displaying graphical user interface (GUI) components in stereo using either specialized stereo display hardware (e.g., liquid crystal shutter or polarized glasses) or anaglyph display (red/blue glasses) on standard workstation displays. An application using this toolkit will work without modification in either environment, allowing stereo software to reach a wider audience without sacrificing high-quality display on dedicated hardware. The toolkit is written in Java for use with the Swing GUI Toolkit and has cross-platform compatibility. It hooks into the graphics system, allowing any standard Swing component to be displayed in stereo. It uses the OpenGL graphics library to control the stereo hardware and to perform the rendering. It also supports anaglyph and special stereo hardware using the same API (application-program interface), and has the ability to simulate color stereo in anaglyph mode by combining the red band of the left image with the green/blue bands of the right image. This is a low-level toolkit that accomplishes simply the display of components (including the JadeDisplay image display component). It does not include higher-level functions such as disparity adjustment, 3D cursor, or overlays all of which can be built using this toolkit.

Integrating existing software toolkits into VO system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, Chenzhou; Zhao, Yong-Heng; Wang, Xiaoqian; Sang, Jian; Luo, Ze

2004-09-01

Virtual Observatory (VO) is a collection of interoperating data archives and software tools. Taking advantages of the latest information technologies, it aims to provide a data-intensively online research environment for astronomers all around the world. A large number of high-qualified astronomical software packages and libraries are powerful and easy of use, and have been widely used by astronomers for many years. Integrating those toolkits into the VO system is a necessary and important task for the VO developers. VO architecture greatly depends on Grid and Web services, consequently the general VO integration route is "Java Ready - Grid Ready - VO Ready". In the paper, we discuss the importance of VO integration for existing toolkits and discuss the possible solutions. We introduce two efforts in the field from China-VO project, "gImageMagick" and "Galactic abundance gradients statistical research under grid environment". We also discuss what additional work should be done to convert Grid service to VO service.

Implementing a centralized institutional peer tutoring program.

PubMed

Gaughf, Natalie White; Foster, Penni Smith

2016-01-01

Peer tutoring has been found to be beneficial to both students and peer tutors in health sciences education programs. This article describes the implementation of a centralized, institutional peer tutoring program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, an academic health science center in the U.S. The Program: This multispecialty peer tutoring program paired students experiencing academic difficulties with peer tutors who showed prior academic success, professionalism and effective communication skills. The program allowed students and peer tutors to coordinate their own tutoring services. Evaluations by both students and peer tutors showed satisfaction with the program. Recommendations for developing and implementing an effective peer tutoring program are presented, including utilization of an online system, consistent program policy with high professionalism expectations, funding, program evaluation and data tracking.

Challenges for Supporting the Development of Afterschool Tutors Who Tutor Children with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLurkin, Denise L.

2013-01-01

The purpose of my study was to examine how volunteer tutors without teaching experience who received minimal training perceived their ability to effectively tutor children with learning disabilities. I found that the tutors initially felt that they could improve their tutee's literacy skills; however, the data suggest that the tutors…

The Face of Private Tutoring in Russia: Evidence from Online Marketing by Private Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kozar, Olga

2013-01-01

Private tutoring is a common and worldwide phenomenon. However, there is a dearth of up-to-date research on private tutoring compared with that on institutional one-to-one teaching, which could be explained by challenges associated with data collection. This article proposes using publicly available online advertisements of private tutors as a…

Tips for Reading Tutors = Consejos para los Tutores en Lectura.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Department of Education, Washington, DC.

Reading is the basis for learning and school success. While reading is learned primarily in the classroom, many students need extra time and help. Research shows that tutoring is a great way for individuals and groups outside school to support learning, but effective tutoring requires appropriate training and careful planning. This brochure,…

Peer Tutoring at Colleges and Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Mikyong Minsun

2015-01-01

This paper focuses on the important roles of peer tutoring and peer tutoring services that utilize student tutors in higher education. First, the roles and potential benefits of peer tutoring are identified and reviewed as they apply to various dimensions of student development. Second, the impacts, benefits, and extended beneficiaries of peer…

Teacher Quality Toolkit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lauer, Patricia A.; Dean, Ceri B.

2004-01-01

This Teacher Quality Toolkit aims to support the continuum of teacher learning by providing tools that institutions of higher education, districts, and schools can use to improve both preservice and inservice teacher education. The toolkit incorporates McREL?s accumulated knowledge and experience related to teacher quality and standards-based…

Conversations with AutoTutor Help Students Learn

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graesser, Arthur C.

2016-01-01

AutoTutor helps students learn by holding a conversation in natural language. AutoTutor is adaptive to the learners' actions, verbal contributions, and in some systems their emotions. Many of AutoTutor's conversation patterns simulate human tutoring, but other patterns implement ideal pedagogies that open the door to computer tutors eclipsing…

Tutor Handbook. Reading Effectiveness Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Indiana State Dept. of Public Instruction, Indianapolis. Div. of Reading Effectiveness.

The five sections of this handbook contain reading tutor training materials, with each section listing behavioral learning objectives specific to a particular instructional situation. The first section defines the role of the tutor, sets forth general principles for successful tutoring, presents examples of interest inventories for elementary and…

A Special Kind of Tutor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Linda Brown

2007-01-01

Tutoring has long been recognized as superior to group instruction, especially for students with special needs. Tutors can adapt instruction to the learner's pace, learning style and level of understanding. Feedback and correction are immediate. Basic misunderstandings can be quickly identified and corrected. Tutoring also has emotional benefits:…

Training Undergraduate Physics Peer Tutors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nossal, S. M.; Jacob, A. T.

2004-05-01

The University of Wisconsin's Physics Peer Mentor Tutor Program matches upper level undergraduate physics students in small study groups with students studying introductory algebra-based physics. We work with students who are potentially at-risk for having academic trouble with the course. They include students with a low exam score, learning disabilities, no high school physics, weak math backgrounds, and/or on academic probation. We also work with students from groups under represented in the sciences and who may be feeling isolated or marginal on campus such as minority, returning adult, and international students. The tutors provide a supportive learning environment, extra practice problems, and an overview of key concepts. In so doing, they help our students to build confidence and problem solving skills applicable to physics and other areas of their academic careers. The Physics Peer Mentor Tutor Program is modeled after a similar program for chemistry created by the University of Wisconsin's Chemistry Learning Center. Both programs are now run in collaboration. The tutors are chosen for their academic strength and excellent communication skills. Our tutors are majoring in physics, math, and secondary-level science education. The tutors receive ongoing training and supervision throughout the year. They attend weekly discipline-specific meetings to discuss strategies for teaching the content currently being discussed in the physics course. They also participate in a weekly teaching seminar with science tutors from chemistry and biochemistry to discuss teaching methods, mentoring, and general information relating to the students with whom we work. We will describe an overview of the Physics Peer Mentor Tutor Program with a focus on the teacher training program for our undergraduate tutors.

Practical and generalizable architecture for an intelligent tutoring system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaplan, Randy M.; Trenholm, Harriet

1993-03-01

In this paper we describe an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) called HYDRIVE (hydraulics interactive video experience). This system is built using several novel approaches to intelligent tutoring. The underlying rationale for HYDRIVE is based on the results of a cognitive task analysis. The reasoning component of the system makes extensive use of a hierarchical knowledge representation. Reasoning within the system is accomplished using a logic-based approach and is linked to a highly interactive interface using multimedia. The knowledge representation contains information that drives the multimedia elements of the system, and the reasoning components select the appropriate information to assess student knowledge or guide the student at any particular moment. As this system will be deployed throughout the Air Force maintenance function, the implementation platform is the IBM PC.

Organizing knowledge for tutoring fire loss prevention

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmoldt, Daniel L.

1989-09-01

The San Bernardino National Forest in southern California has recently developed a systematic approach to wildfire prevention planning. However, a comprehensive document or other mechanism for teaching this process to other prevention personnel does not exist. An intelligent tutorial expert system is being constructed to provide a means for learning the process and to assist in the creation of specific prevention plans. An intelligent tutoring system (ITS) contains two types of knowledge—domain and tutoring. The domain knowledge for wildfire prevention is structured around several foci: (1) individual concepts used in prevention planning; (2) explicitly specified interrelationships between concepts; (3) deductive methods that contain subjective judgment normally unavailable to less-experienced users; (4) analytical models of fire behavior used for identification of hazard areas; (5) how-to guidance needed for performance of planning tasks; and (6) expository information that provides a rationale for planning steps and ideas. Combining analytical, procedure, inferential, conceptual, and expositional knowledge into a tutoring environment provides the student and/or user with a multiple perspective of the subject matter. A concept network provides a unifying framework for structuring and utilizing these diverse forms of prevention planning knowledge. This network structure borrows from and combines semantic networks and frame-based knowledge representations. The flexibility of this organization facilitates an effective synthesis and organization of multiple knowledge forms.

Intelligent Tutoring System: A Tool for Testing the Research Curiosities of Artificial Intelligence Researchers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yaratan, Huseyin

2003-01-01

An ITS (Intelligent Tutoring System) is a teaching-learning medium that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology for instruction. Roberts and Park (1983) defines AI as the attempt to get computers to perform tasks that if performed by a human-being, intelligence would be required to perform the task. The design of an ITS comprises two distinct…

Time to Completion of Web-Based Physics Problems with Tutoring

PubMed Central

Warnakulasooriya, Rasil; Palazzo, David J; Pritchard, David E

2007-01-01

We studied students performing a complex learning task, that of solving multipart physics problems with interactive tutoring on the web. We extracted the rate of completion and fraction completed as a function of time on task by retrospectively analyzing the log of student–tutor interactions. There was a spontaneous division of students into three groups, the central (and largest) group (about 65% of the students) being those who solved the problem in real time after multiple interactions with the tutorial program (primarily receiving feedback to submitted wrong answers and requesting hints). This group displayed a sigmoidal fraction-completed curve as a function of logarithmic time. The sigmoidal shape is qualitatively flatter for problems that do not include hints and wrong-answer responses. We argue that the group of students who respond quickly (about 10% of the students) is obtaining the answer from some outside source. The third group (about 25% of the students) represents those who interrupt their solution, presumably to work offline or to obtain outside help. PMID:17725054

Adult Academy Tutor Training Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isserlis, Janet; And Others

This handbook is for volunteer tutors, student interns, and VISTA volunteers working with adult basic education (ABE) and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. The community-based handbook contains information about adult literacy and tutoring--what tutors do, who the learners are, and how the literacy learning process works. Introductory…

Tutoring Your Child.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohn, Joanne

The parents' role as teacher is important to a child's learning process. Parents tutoring their children are advised to remain positive and patient, be aware of the child's feelings, keep the tutoring time short, select a quiet place away from distractions, use games and manipulative objects rather than more abstract experiences, etc. Informal…

Medical faculty opinions of peer tutoring.

PubMed

Rudland, Joy R; Rennie, Sarah C

2014-01-01

Peer tutoring is a well-researched and established method of learning defined as 'a medical student facilitating the learning of another medical student'. While it has been adopted in many medical schools, other schools may be reluctant to embrace this approach. The attitude of the teaching staff, responsible for organizing and or teaching students in an undergraduate medical course to formal peer teaching will affect how it is introduced and operationalized. This study elicits faculty opinions on how best to introduce peer tutoring for medical students. Structured telephone interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. The interviews were with medically qualified staff responsible for organizing or teaching undergraduate medical students at a New Zealand medical school. Six questions were posed regarding perceived advantages and disadvantages of peer tutoring and how the school and staff could support a peer-tutoring scheme if one was introduced. Staff generally supported the peer tutoring concept, offering a safe environment for learning with its teachers being so close in career stage to the learners. They also say disadvantages when the student-teachers imparted wrong information and when schools used peer tutoring to justify a reduction in teaching staff. Subjects felt that faculty would be more accepting of peer tutoring if efforts were made to build staff 'buy in' and empowerment, train peer tutors and introduce a solid evaluation process. Staff of our school expressed some concerns about peer tutoring that are not supported in the literature, signaling a need for better communication about the benefits and disadvantages of peer tutoring.

Authoring Effective Embedded Tutors: An Overview of the Extensible Problem Specific Tutor (xPST) System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilbert, Stephen B.; Blessing, Stephen B.; Guo, Enruo

2015-01-01

The Extensible Problem Specific Tutor (xPST) allows authors who are not cognitive scientists and not programmers to quickly create an intelligent tutoring system that provides instruction akin to a model-tracing tutor. Furthermore, this instruction is overlaid on existing software, so that the learner's interface does not have to be made from…

The influence of tutor training for peer tutors in the dissection course on the learning behavior of students.

PubMed

Shiozawa, T; Hirt, B; Lammerding-Koeppel, M

2016-11-01

Student tutors in the dissection course are expected to meet high demands in their job, to fulfill these expectations they receive training. Combined tutor training is well accepted by tutors and tutees, however, it is not known how tutor training influences student learning. Deduced from the learning goals of the tutor training, a randomized, controlled, single-blinded study was set up with a quantitative cross-sectional analysis to compare student learning behavior. A total of 197 medical students, coached either by ten trained or ten untrained tutors, were enlisted in the study. To assess the students' learning behavior we employed the LIST questionnaire. A common factor analysis was calculated to extract dimensions. Factor scores of the extracted dimensions were calculated for both groups to estimate differences in learning behavior. Factor analysis of the LIST questionnaire revealed eight factors explaining 47.57% of the overall variance. The eight factors comprise: deep learning, attention, learning organization, cooperative learning, time management, learning effort, superficial learning and learning environment. Comparing the factor scores of the extracted dimensions, students coached by trained tutors learned significantly more with their fellow students (factor score in cooperative learning 0.194 vs. -0.205, p<0.05), than students trained by untrained tutors. Students coached by trained tutors also tend to be better organized in their learning (factor score in learning organization 0.115 vs. -0.122, p=0.16). The learning behavior of students coached by trained tutors differs from the learning behavior of students coached by untrained tutors. Students coached by trained tutors learn significantly more often in teams than their colleagues and are better organized. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

NCLB Tutoring outside the Box

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoff, David J.

2008-01-01

This article describes one community-based nonprofit group that provides free tutoring to poor children under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Unlike most other tutoring sessions under the law, the one at Erie Neighborhood House, a social-services agency in Chicago, is not happening in a school building or at a corporate tutoring outlet. Those…

Green Infrastructure Modeling Toolkit

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA's Green Infrastructure Modeling Toolkit is a toolkit of 5 EPA green infrastructure models and tools, along with communication materials, that can be used as a teaching tool and a quick reference resource when making GI implementation decisions.

Ask-Elle: An Adaptable Programming Tutor for Haskell Giving Automated Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerdes, Alex; Heeren, Bastiaan; Jeuring, Johan; van Binsbergen, L. Thomas

2017-01-01

Ask-Elle is a tutor for learning the higher-order, strongly-typed functional programming language Haskell. It supports the stepwise development of Haskell programs by verifying the correctness of incomplete programs, and by providing hints. Programming exercises are added to Ask-Elle by providing a task description for the exercise, one or more…

Research Methods Tutor: evaluation of a dialogue-based tutoring system in the classroom.

PubMed

Arnott, Elizabeth; Hastings, Peter; Allbritton, David

2008-08-01

Research Methods Tutor (RMT) is a dialogue-based intelligent tutoring system for use in conjunction with undergraduate psychology research methods courses. RMT includes five topics that correspond to the curriculum of introductory research methods courses: ethics, variables, reliability, validity, and experimental design. We evaluated the effectiveness of the RMT system in the classroom using a nonequivalent control group design. Students in three classes (n = 83) used RMT, and students in two classes (n = 53) did not use RMT. Results indicated that the use of RMT yieldedstrong learning gains of 0.75 standard deviations above classroom instruction alone. Further, the dialogue-based tutoring condition of the system resulted in higher gains than did the textbook-style condition (CAI version) of the system. Future directions for RMT include the addition of new topics and tutoring elements.

[Self-audit and tutor accreditation].

PubMed

Ezquerra Lezcano, Matilde; Tamayo Ojeda, Carmen; Calvet Junoy, Silvia; Avellana Revuelta, Esteve; Vila-Coll, María Antonia; Morera Jordán, Concepción

2010-02-01

To describe the experience of using self-audit (SA) as a means of accrediting family and community medicine tutors, to analyse the knowledge that the tutors have on this self-assessment methodology, and to record their opinions on this method. Retrospective descriptive study and analysis of an opinion questionnaire. Family and community medicine teaching units (TU) in Catalonia. Tutors from family and community medicine TU in Catalonia (July 2001-July 2008). Training of the tutors in SA methodology, creation of a reference group and a correction cycle. Correction by peers of the SAs performed by the tutors according to previously determined criteria and subsequent issue of a report-feedback. Self-administered questionnaire by a group of TU tutors. A total of 673 SA were performed. The most frequent topic selected was diabetes mellitus in 27.9% of cases. The overall evaluation of the SA from a methodological point of view was correct in 44.5% of cases, improvable in 45.3%, and deficient in 10.2%. A total of 300 opinion questionnaires were issued. The response rate was 151/300 (50.03%). On the question about the usefulness of the SA in professional practice, 12% considered it very useful, 56% adequate, and 32% of little use or not useful. As regards whether it was a good means for the re-accreditation or accreditation of tutors, 66% considered that it was not. A high percentage of the SAs analysed are not carried out correctly, which indicates that tutors do not know this self-assessment method very well. They consider that SAs are a useful tool for improving clinical practice, but not a good means for accreditation and re-accreditation.

The GeoViz Toolkit: Using component-oriented coordination methods for geographic visualization and analysis

PubMed Central

Hardisty, Frank; Robinson, Anthony C.

2010-01-01

In this paper we present the GeoViz Toolkit, an open-source, internet-delivered program for geographic visualization and analysis that features a diverse set of software components which can be flexibly combined by users who do not have programming expertise. The design and architecture of the GeoViz Toolkit allows us to address three key research challenges in geovisualization: allowing end users to create their own geovisualization and analysis component set on-the-fly, integrating geovisualization methods with spatial analysis methods, and making geovisualization applications sharable between users. Each of these tasks necessitates a robust yet flexible approach to inter-tool coordination. The coordination strategy we developed for the GeoViz Toolkit, called Introspective Observer Coordination, leverages and combines key advances in software engineering from the last decade: automatic introspection of objects, software design patterns, and reflective invocation of methods. PMID:21731423

Pedagogical Strategies for Human and Computer Tutoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reiser, Brian J.

The pedagogical strategies of human tutors in problem solving domains are described and the possibility of incorporating these techniques into computerized tutors is examined. GIL (Graphical Instruction in LISP), an intelligent tutoring system for LISP programming, is compared to human tutors teaching the same material in order to identify how the…

Detention Home Teens as Tutors: A Cooperative Cross-Age Tutoring Pilot Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lazerson, David B.

2005-01-01

Concerned professionals in the juvenile justice field frequently express concern for effective programs that help youth offenders successfully rejoin society. This mixed-method pilot study involved detention home teens functioning as tutors for special education students in a public school. Tutors were selected who, based on previous assessment as…

Success in tutoring electronic troubleshooting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parker, Ellen M.

1990-01-01

Two years ago Dr. Sherrie Gott of the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory described an avionics troubleshooting tutor being developed under the Basic Job Skills Research Program. The tutor, known as Sherlock, is directed at teaching the diagnostic procedures necessary to investigate complex test equipment used to maintain F-15 fighter aircraft. Since Dr. Gott's presentation in 1987, the tutor has undergone field testing at two Air Force F-15 flying wings. The results of the field test showed that after an average of 20 hours on the tutor, the 16 airmen in the experimental group (who average 28 months of experience) showed significant performance gains when compared to a control group (having a mean experience level of 37 months) who continued participating in the existing on-the-job training program. Troubleshooting performance of the tutored group approached the level of proficiency of highly experienced airmen (averaging approximately 114 months of experience), and these performance gains were confirmed in delayed testing six months following the intervention. The tutor is currently undergoing a hardware and software conversion form a Xerox Lisp environment to a PC-based environment using an object-oriented programming language. Summarized here are the results of the successful field test. The focus is on: (1) the instructional features that contributed to Sherlock's success; and (2) the implementation of these features in the PC-based version of the avionics troubleshooting tutor.

Peer and Cross-Age Tutoring. ERIC Digest, Number 79.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaustad, Joan

One-to-one tutoring programs, such as peer and cross-age tutoring, can result in emotional and learning benefits for the tutor and the tutee. Peer tutoring involves two students of the same age. In cross-age tutoring, the tutor is older than the tutee. The Willamette High School Peer Tutoring Program in Eugene, Oregon; the Coca-Cola Valued Youth…

Instructional Aspects of Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pieters, Jules M., Ed.

This collection contains three papers addressing the instructional aspects of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS): (1) "Some Experiences with Two Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Teaching Computer Programming: Proust and the LISP-Tutor" (van den Berg, Merrienboer, and Maaswinkel); (2) "Some Issues on the Construction of Cooperative…

Student Success Center Toolkit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jobs For the Future, 2014

2014-01-01

"Student Success Center Toolkit" is a compilation of materials organized to assist Student Success Center directors as they staff, launch, operate, and sustain Centers. The toolkit features materials created and used by existing Centers, such as staffing and budgeting templates, launch materials, sample meeting agendas, and fundraising…

Adaptive Tutoring for Self-Regulated Learning: A Tutorial on Tutoring Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

impact learning with effect sizes equivalent to raising average (“C”) students to experts (“A” students) through tailored instruction and...classification using physiological sensors (Brawner and Goldberg, 2012; Goldberg & Brawner, 2012; Kokini, et al, 2012) • EEGs – Advanced Brain ... IQ , EQ, adaptability…) Merrill, D. , Reiser, B, Ranney, M., and Trafton, J. (1992). Effective Tutoring Techniques: A Comparison of Human Tutors and

Pilot study of telephone tutoring in reading skills.

PubMed

Strayhorn, Joseph M

2005-10-01

This study tested the feasibility of tutoring children in reading via telephone sessions. 19 children received tutoring from any of 6 tutors for an average of 7.6 hr. per month. Initially, these children were an average of 10.4 yr. old, in average Grade 4.8, and averaged 2.9 grade levels behind their grade expectations on the Slosson Oral Reading Test. Before tutoring the children had progressed on the Slosson at an average of 0.44 grade levels per year (95% CI = 0.30 to 0.57). The children participated in telephone tutoring for an average of 1.5 yr. During tutoring the students progressed at an average of 2.0 grade levels per year (95% CI = 1.2 to 2.8). The rate of progress during tutoring was significantly greater than that before tutoring (p<.001). The relations between tutors and students appeared to be positive and pleasant. Telephone tutoring seems to be a practical and feasible service delivery method which should be tested further.

The PyRosetta Toolkit: a graphical user interface for the Rosetta software suite.

PubMed

Adolf-Bryfogle, Jared; Dunbrack, Roland L

2013-01-01

The Rosetta Molecular Modeling suite is a command-line-only collection of applications that enable high-resolution modeling and design of proteins and other molecules. Although extremely useful, Rosetta can be difficult to learn for scientists with little computational or programming experience. To that end, we have created a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for Rosetta, called the PyRosetta Toolkit, for creating and running protocols in Rosetta for common molecular modeling and protein design tasks and for analyzing the results of Rosetta calculations. The program is highly extensible so that developers can add new protocols and analysis tools to the PyRosetta Toolkit GUI.

Flightspeed Integral Image Analysis Toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, David R.

2009-01-01

The Flightspeed Integral Image Analysis Toolkit (FIIAT) is a C library that provides image analysis functions in a single, portable package. It provides basic low-level filtering, texture analysis, and subwindow descriptor for applications dealing with image interpretation and object recognition. Designed with spaceflight in mind, it addresses: Ease of integration (minimal external dependencies) Fast, real-time operation using integer arithmetic where possible (useful for platforms lacking a dedicated floatingpoint processor) Written entirely in C (easily modified) Mostly static memory allocation 8-bit image data The basic goal of the FIIAT library is to compute meaningful numerical descriptors for images or rectangular image regions. These n-vectors can then be used directly for novelty detection or pattern recognition, or as a feature space for higher-level pattern recognition tasks. The library provides routines for leveraging training data to derive descriptors that are most useful for a specific data set. Its runtime algorithms exploit a structure known as the "integral image." This is a caching method that permits fast summation of values within rectangular regions of an image. This integral frame facilitates a wide range of fast image-processing functions. This toolkit has applicability to a wide range of autonomous image analysis tasks in the space-flight domain, including novelty detection, object and scene classification, target detection for autonomous instrument placement, and science analysis of geomorphology. It makes real-time texture and pattern recognition possible for platforms with severe computational restraints. The software provides an order of magnitude speed increase over alternative software libraries currently in use by the research community. FIIAT can commercially support intelligent video cameras used in intelligent surveillance. It is also useful for object recognition by robots or other autonomous vehicles

The development of expertise on an intelligent tutoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Debra Steele

1989-01-01

An initial examination was conducted of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) developed for use in industry. The ITS, developed by NASA, simulated a satellite deployment task. More specifically, the PD (Payload Assist Module Deployment)/ICAT (Intelligent Computer Aided Training) System simulated a nominal Payload Assist Module (PAM) deployment. The development of expertise on this task was examined using three Flight Dynamics Officer (FDO) candidates who had no previous experience with this task. The results indicated that performance improved rapidly until Trial 5, followed by more gradual improvements through Trial 12. The performance dimensions measured included performance speed, actions completed, errors, help required, and display fields checked. Suggestions for further refining the software and for deciding when to expose trainees to more difficult task scenarios are discussed. Further, the results provide an initial demonstration of the effectiveness of the PD/ICAT system in training the nominal PAM deployment task and indicate the potential benefits of using ITS's for training other FDO tasks.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, John R.; Boyle, C. Franklin; Reiser, Brian J.

1985-04-01

Cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, and computer technology have advanced to the point where it is feasible to build computer systems that are as effective as intelligent human tutors. Computer tutors based on a set of pedagogical principles derived from the ACT theory of cognition have been developed for teaching students to do proofs in geometry and to write computer programs in the language LISP.

Intelligent tutoring systems.

PubMed

Anderson, J R; Boyle, C F; Reiser, B J

1985-04-26

Cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, and computer technology have advanced to the point where it is feasible to build computer systems that are as effective as intelligent human tutors. Computer tutors based on a set of pedagogical principles derived from the ACT theory of cognition have been developed for teaching students to do proofs in geometry and to write computer programs in the language LISP.

Simplifying operations with an uplink/downlink integration toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, Susan C.; Miller, Kevin J.; Guerrero, Ana Maria; Joe, Chester; Louie, John J.; Aguilera, Christine

1994-01-01

The Operations Engineering Lab (OEL) at JPL has developed a simple, generic toolkit to integrate the uplink/downlink processes, (often called closing the loop), in JPL's Multimission Ground Data System. This toolkit provides capabilities for integrating telemetry verification points with predicted spacecraft commands and ground events in the Mission Sequence Of Events (SOE) document. In the JPL ground data system, the uplink processing functions and the downlink processing functions are separate subsystems that are not well integrated because of the nature of planetary missions with large one-way light times for spacecraft-to-ground communication. Our new closed-loop monitoring tool allows an analyst or mission controller to view and save uplink commands and ground events with their corresponding downlinked telemetry values regardless of the delay in downlink telemetry and without requiring real-time intervention by the user. An SOE document is a time-ordered list of all the planned ground and spacecraft events, including all commands, sequence loads, ground events, significant mission activities, spacecraft status, and resource allocations. The SOE document is generated by expansion and integration of spacecraft sequence files, ground station allocations, navigation files, and other ground event files. This SOE generation process has been automated within the OEL and includes a graphical, object-oriented SOE editor and real-time viewing tool running under X/Motif. The SOE toolkit was used as the framework for the integrated implementation. The SOE is used by flight engineers to coordinate their operations tasks, serving as a predict data set in ground operations and mission control. The closed-loop SOE toolkit allows simple, automated integration of predicted uplink events with correlated telemetry points in a single SOE document for on-screen viewing and archiving. It automatically interfaces with existing real-time or non real-time sources of information, to

Simplifying operations with an uplink/downlink integration toolkit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, Susan C.; Miller, Kevin J.; Guerrero, Ana Maria; Joe, Chester; Louie, John J.; Aguilera, Christine

1994-11-01

The Operations Engineering Lab (OEL) at JPL has developed a simple, generic toolkit to integrate the uplink/downlink processes, (often called closing the loop), in JPL's Multimission Ground Data System. This toolkit provides capabilities for integrating telemetry verification points with predicted spacecraft commands and ground events in the Mission Sequence Of Events (SOE) document. In the JPL ground data system, the uplink processing functions and the downlink processing functions are separate subsystems that are not well integrated because of the nature of planetary missions with large one-way light times for spacecraft-to-ground communication. Our new closed-loop monitoring tool allows an analyst or mission controller to view and save uplink commands and ground events with their corresponding downlinked telemetry values regardless of the delay in downlink telemetry and without requiring real-time intervention by the user. An SOE document is a time-ordered list of all the planned ground and spacecraft events, including all commands, sequence loads, ground events, significant mission activities, spacecraft status, and resource allocations. The SOE document is generated by expansion and integration of spacecraft sequence files, ground station allocations, navigation files, and other ground event files. This SOE generation process has been automated within the OEL and includes a graphical, object-oriented SOE editor and real-time viewing tool running under X/Motif. The SOE toolkit was used as the framework for the integrated implementation. The SOE is used by flight engineers to coordinate their operations tasks, serving as a predict data set in ground operations and mission control. The closed-loop SOE toolkit allows simple, automated integration of predicted uplink events with correlated telemetry points in a single SOE document for on-screen viewing and archiving. It automatically interfaces with existing real-time or non real-time sources of information, to

An intelligent tutoring system for the investigation of high performance skill acquisition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fink, Pamela K.; Herren, L. Tandy; Regian, J. Wesley

1991-01-01

The issue of training high performance skills is of increasing concern. These skills include tasks such as driving a car, playing the piano, and flying an aircraft. Traditionally, the training of high performance skills has been accomplished through the use of expensive, high-fidelity, 3-D simulators, and/or on-the-job training using the actual equipment. Such an approach to training is quite expensive. The design, implementation, and deployment of an intelligent tutoring system developed for the purpose of studying the effectiveness of skill acquisition using lower-cost, lower-physical-fidelity, 2-D simulation. Preliminary experimental results are quite encouraging, indicating that intelligent tutoring systems are a cost-effective means of training high performance skills.

An integrated 2-year clinical skills peer tutoring scheme in a UK-based medical school: perceptions of tutees and peer tutors

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Background Several benefits of peer tutoring in medical school teaching have been described. However, there is a lack of research on the perceptions of peer tutoring, particularly from tutees who partake in a long-term clinical skills scheme integrated into the medical school curriculum. This study evaluates the opinions of preclinical tutees at the end of a 2-year peer-tutored clinical skills program and peer tutors themselves. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in a UK-based medical school that primarily utilizes peer tutoring for clinical skills teaching. A questionnaire was designed to assess the views of preclinical tutees and peer tutors. Likert scales were used to grade responses and comment boxes to collect qualitative data. Results Sixty-five questionnaires were collected (52 tutees, 13 peer tutors). Seventy-nine percent of students felt satisfied with their teaching, and 70% felt adequately prepared for clinical placements. Furthermore, 79% believed that peer tutoring is the most effective method for clinical skills teaching. When compared to faculty teaching, tutees preferred being taught by peer tutors (63%), felt more confident (73%), and were more willing to engage (77%). All peer tutors felt that teaching made them more confident in their Objective Structured Clinical Examination performance, and 91% agreed that being a tutor made them consider pursuing teaching in the future. Thematic analysis of qualitative data identified 3 themes regarding peer tutoring: a more comfortable environment (69%), a more personalized teaching approach (34%), and variation in content taught (14%). Conclusion Preclinical tutees prefer being taught clinical skills by peer tutors compared to faculty, with the peer tutors also benefitting. Studies such as this, looking at long-term schemes, further validate peer tutoring and may encourage more medical schools to adopt this method as an effective way of clinical skills teaching. PMID:29922105

Cross-Age Peer Tutoring in Physics: Tutors, Tutees, and Achievement in Electricity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korner, Marianne; Hopf, Martin

2015-01-01

International comparisons reveal that lower-secondary-level students in Austria perform below the OECD mean in science. Guided by the search for remedies and improvements in science teaching, this study investigates whether cross-age peer tutoring is an appropriate method for teaching physics. A modern and concise definition of peer tutoring is…

Effect of didactically qualified student tutors on their tutees' academic performance and tutor evaluation in the gross anatomy course.

PubMed

Horneffer, A; Fassnacht, U; Oechsner, W; Huber-Lang, M; Boeckers, T M; Boeckers, A

2016-11-01

Peer teaching is widely applied in medical education, anatomists having a notably long tradition in cooperating with student tutors in the dissection course. At Ulm University we established an intensified concomitant didactic training program for student tutors and investigated possible effects on their tutees' academic performance and tutor evaluation. In winter semester 2012/13 all student tutors of the dissection course were invited to participate in the "Train-the-Tutor" educational program. 1 Test results and failure rates of 149 tutees who had been supervised by program participants (n=14) and 136 tutees of not participating tutors (n=13) were analyzed, as well as data on tutor evaluation and learning behavior of 235 (82%) of these tutees. Overall, both groups of tutees showed equal learning behavior and evaluated their tutors' performances similarly. However, tutees of program participants consistently obtained better examination results (median: 1.9 versus 2.2 in overall scores) and lower ultimate failure rates (13.4 versus 17.6% of students failed, respectively). An intensified didactic training program for student tutors may help their tutees to pass the gross anatomy course. Additional studies are necessary to objectify and further investigate this effect in order to optimize the concept regarding time expenditure and costs. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Multimedia Tutors for Science and Engineering.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woolf, Beverly Park; Poli, Corrado; Grosse, Ian; Day, Roberta

We have built several multimedia tutors for science and engineering education. This paper discusses Design for Manufacturing tutors and an electronic homework systems used by over 2000 students daily. The engineering tutors instruct students on efficient procedures for designing parts for manufacture. The goal is to support a deeper understanding…

Individualizing Education: A Guide for Tutors.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linder, Steven; Gordon, Rhonda Ellen

A background manual for tutors explains and defines their role in a system of individualized education in some detail. Differences between the role of teacher and the role of tutor are analyzed. Methods of forestalling cheating and other "black-market operations" are discussed. Tutoring procedures are outlined and individualized education manuals…

Preparing Tutors to Hit the Ground Running: Lessons from New Tutors' Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calma, Angelito

2013-01-01

Tutor development is an essential part of academic staff development, yet is comparatively under-researched. This article examines what tutors value as most and least important in a program. Using data from more than 300 participants in three years, and using the dimensions or worth, merit and success as an analytical framework, the article…

A Tutoring System That Simulates the Highly Interactive Nature of Human Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katz, Sandra; Albacete, Patricia L.

2013-01-01

For some time, it has been clear that students who are tutored generally learn more than students who experience classroom instruction (e.g., Bloom, 1984). Much research has been devoted to identifying features of tutorial dialogue that can explain its effectiveness, so that these features can be simulated in natural-language tutoring systems. One…

SKOPE-IT (Shareable Knowledge Objects as Portable Intelligent Tutors): Overlaying Natural Language Tutoring on an Adaptive Learning System for Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nye, Benjamin D.; Pavlik, Philip I., Jr.; Windsor, Alistair; Olney, Andrew M.; Hajeer, Mustafa; Hu, Xiangen

2018-01-01

Background: This study investigated learning outcomes and user perceptions from interactions with a hybrid intelligent tutoring system created by combining the AutoTutor conversational tutoring system with the Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS) adaptive learning system for mathematics. This hybrid intelligent tutoring system (ITS)…

ReportTutor – An Intelligent Tutoring System that Uses a Natural Language Interface

PubMed Central

Crowley, Rebecca S.; Tseytlin, Eugene; Jukic, Drazen

2005-01-01

ReportTutor is an extension to our work on Intelligent Tutoring Systems for visual diagnosis. ReportTutor combines a virtual microscope and a natural language interface to allow students to visually inspect a virtual slide as they type a diagnostic report on the case. The system monitors both actions in the virtual microscope interface as well as text created by the student in the reporting interface. It provides feedback about the correctness, completeness, and style of the report. ReportTutor uses MMTx with a custom data-source created with the NCI Metathesaurus. A separate ontology of cancer specific concepts is used to structure the domain knowledge needed for evaluation of the student’s input including co-reference resolution. As part of the early evaluation of the system, we collected data from 4 pathology residents who typed in their reports without the tutoring aspects of the system, and compared responses to an expert dermatopathologist. We analyzed the resulting reports to (1) identify the error rates and distribution among student reports, (2) determine the performance of the system in identifying features within student reports, and (3) measure the accuracy of the system in distinguishing between correct and incorrect report elements. PMID:16779024

Teachers Engaging Parents as Reading Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kupzyk, Sara S.; Daly, Edward J., III.

2017-01-01

This study examined the application of evidence-based tutoring for oral reading fluency (ORF) to a natural setting, using teachers as parent trainers. Three teachers were trained in a 3-h workshop to develop individualized tutoring programs with parents. Following training, the teachers trained four parents to use individualized tutoring programs.…

"I couldn't do this with opposition from my colleagues": A qualitative study of physicians' experiences as clinical tutors

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Clinical contact in the early curriculum and workplace learning with active tutorship are important parts of modern medical education. In a previously published study, we found that medical students' tutors experienced a heavier workload, less reasonable demands and less encouragement, than students. The aim of this interview study was to further illuminate physicians' experiences as clinical tutors. Methods Twelve tutors in the Early Professional Contact course were interviewed. In the explorative interviews, they were asked to reflect upon their experiences of working as tutors in this course. Systematic text condensation was used as the analysis method. Results In the analysis, five main themes of physicians' experiences as clinical tutors in the medical education emerged: (a) Pleasure and stimulation. Informants appreciated tutorship and meeting both students and fellow tutors, (b) Disappointment and stagnation. Occasionally, tutors were frustrated and expressed negative feelings, (c) Demands and duty. Informants articulated an ambition to give students their best; a desire to provide better medical education but also a duty to meet demands of the course management, (d) Impact of workplace relations. Tutoring was made easier when the clinic's management provided active support and colleagues accepted students at the clinic, and (e) Multitasking difficulties. Combining several duties with those of a tutorship was often reported as difficult. Conclusions It is important that tutors' tasks are given adequate time, support and preparation. Accordingly, it appears highly important to avoid multitasking and too heavy a workload among tutors in order to facilitate tutoring. A crucial factor is acceptance and active organizational support from the clinic's management. This implies that tutoring by workplace learning in medical education should play an integrated and accepted role in the healthcare system. PMID:21975057

The Lecturer's Toolkit: A Resource for Developing Learning, Teaching & Assessment. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Race, Phil

This "toolkit" ring binder is designed to help teachers develop their professional practice in higher education and to enhance their instruction and assessment. A smaller bound version of this second edition is designed to be used by individual lecturers as their personal copy; it contains fewer tasks and activities. The chapters are: (1)…

Tutor-Student System Dropout Prevention Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George, John E.; Prugh, Linda S.

This paper reports on an intensive, highly-structured, one-to-one tutoring system used as a model program. The "Tutor-Student System in Beginning Reading," the basic instructional material for the model program, was developed to train tutors to say and do what the reading specialist normally says and does when teaching reading in a…

Merging the Forces of Asynchronous Tutoring and Synchronous Conferencing: A Qualitative Study of Arab ESL Academic Writers Using E-Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alqadoumi, Omar Mohamed

2012-01-01

Previous studies in the field of e-tutoring dealt either with asynchronous tutoring or synchronous conferencing as modes for providing e-tutoring services to English learners. This qualitative research study reports the experiences of Arab ESL tutees with both asynchronous tutoring and synchronous conferencing. It also reports the experiences of…

Local Foods, Local Places Toolkit

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Toolkit to help communities that want to use local foods to spur revitalization. The toolkit gives step-by-step instructions to help communities plan and host a workshop and create an action plan to implement.

The MIGenAS integrated bioinformatics toolkit for web-based sequence analysis

PubMed Central

Rampp, Markus; Soddemann, Thomas; Lederer, Hermann

2006-01-01

We describe a versatile and extensible integrated bioinformatics toolkit for the analysis of biological sequences over the Internet. The web portal offers convenient interactive access to a growing pool of chainable bioinformatics software tools and databases that are centrally installed and maintained by the RZG. Currently, supported tasks comprise sequence similarity searches in public or user-supplied databases, computation and validation of multiple sequence alignments, phylogenetic analysis and protein–structure prediction. Individual tools can be seamlessly chained into pipelines allowing the user to conveniently process complex workflows without the necessity to take care of any format conversions or tedious parsing of intermediate results. The toolkit is part of the Max-Planck Integrated Gene Analysis System (MIGenAS) of the Max Planck Society available at (click ‘Start Toolkit’). PMID:16844980

Investigating Language Tutor Social Inclusion Identities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barkhuizen, Gary

2017-01-01

This article explores the identities of tutors working in one-to-one instructional arrangements, which entail a tutor and an adult English learner working together to meet the particular language learning needs and goals of the learner. The tutors in this study are matched with their partners through an organization in New Zealand which aims to…

PC Tutor. Bericht uber ein PC-gestutzes Tutorensystem = PC Tutor. Report on a Tutoring System with Personal Computer. ZIFF Papiere 75.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fritsch, Helmut

A project was conducted to increase as well as to professionalize communication between tutors and learners in a West German university's distance education program by the use of personal computers. Two tutors worked on the systematic development of a PC-based correcting system. The goal, apart from developing general language skills in English,…

Impasse-driven tutoring for reactive skill acquisition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hill, Randall W., Jr.; Johnson, W. Lewis

1993-01-01

We are interested in developing effective performance-oriented training for the operation of systems that are used for monitor and control purposes. We have focused on one such system, the communications Link Monitor and Control (LMC) system used in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), which is a worldwide system for navigating, tracking and communicating with unmanned interplanetary spacecraft. The tasks in this domain are procedural in nature and require reactive, goal-oriented skills; we have previously described a cognitive model for problem solving that accounts for both novice and expert levels of behavior as well as how skill is acquired. Our cognitive modeling work in this task domain led us to make a number of predictions about tutoring that have influenced the design of the system described in this paper.

Computer Tutors Get Personal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, David L.

2005-01-01

After decades of research in artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive psychology, a number of companies have emerged that offer intelligent tutor system (ITS) soft ware to schools. These systems try to mimic the help that a human tutor would provide to an individual student, something nearly impossible for teachers to accomplish in the…

Does Private Tutoring Work? The Effectiveness of Private Tutoring: A Nonparametric Bounds Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hof, Stefanie

2014-01-01

Private tutoring has become popular throughout the world. However, evidence for the effect of private tutoring on students' academic outcome is inconclusive; therefore, this paper presents an alternative framework: a nonparametric bounds method. The present examination uses, for the first time, a large representative data-set in a European setting…

Twelve tips for successful e-tutoring using electronic portfolios.

PubMed

Deketelaere, Ann; Degryse, Jan; De Munter, Agnes; De Leyn, Paul

2009-06-01

E-tutoring by means of a digital portfolio offers personal guidance in a context in which regular face-to-face contact between supervisor and student is difficult. However, implementing e-tutoring in practice is not always straightforward. This article investigates the conditions for successful e-tutoring of electronic portfolios. A combination of three methods is used: our own experience with e-tutoring, interviews with 14 tutors using an e-portfolio and the answers on questionnaires by 107 students. We present 12 tips to increase the chances of successful e-tutoring when using electronic portfolios. E-tutoring by means of electronic portfolios can be a feasible alternative in contexts in which face-to-face tutoring is difficult.

Computer Aided Evaluation of Higher Education Tutors' Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xenos, Michalis; Papadopoulos, Thanos

2007-01-01

This article presents a method for computer-aided tutor evaluation: Bayesian Networks are used for organizing the collected data about tutors and for enabling accurate estimations and predictions about future tutor behavior. The model provides indications about each tutor's strengths and weaknesses, which enables the evaluator to exploit strengths…

The Impact of Game-Like Features on Learning from an Intelligent Tutoring System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Millis, Keith; Forsyth, Carol; Wallace, Patricia; Graesser, Arthur C.; Timmins, Gary

2017-01-01

Prior research has shown that students learn from Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). However, students' attention may drift or become disengaged with the task over extended amounts of instruction. To remedy this problem, researchers have examined the impact of game-like features (e.g., a narrative) in digital learning environments on motivation…

Incorporating CLIPS into a personal-computer-based Intelligent Tutoring System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mueller, Stephen J.

1990-01-01

A large number of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS's) have been built since they were first proposed in the early 1970's. Research conducted on the use of the best of these systems has demonstrated their effectiveness in tutoring in selected domains. Computer Sciences Corporation, Applied Technology Division, Houston Operations has been tasked by the Spacecraft Software Division at NASA/Johnson Space Center (NASA/JSC) to develop a number of lTS's in a variety of domains and on many different platforms. This paper will address issues facing the development of an ITS on a personal computer using the CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System) language. For an ITS to be widely accepted, not only must it be effective, flexible, and very responsive, it must also be capable of functioning on readily available computers. There are many issues to consider when using CLIPS to develop an ITS on a personal computer. Some of these issues are the following: when to use CLIPS and when to use a procedural language such as C, how to maximize speed and minimize memory usage, and how to decrease the time required to load your rule base once you are ready to deliver the system. Based on experiences in developing the CLIPS Intelligent Tutoring System (CLIPSITS) on an IBM PC clone and an intelligent Physics Tutor on a Macintosh 2, this paper reports results on how to address some of these issues. It also suggests approaches for maintaining a powerful learning environment while delivering robust performance within the speed and memory constraints of the personal computer.

Investigating Microadaptation in One-to-One Human Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siler, Stephanie Ann; VanLehn, Kurt

2015-01-01

The authors investigated whether some advantages of tutoring over other instructional methods are due to microadaptation, or, tutors basing their actions on assessments of tutees they develop during tutoring. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment, independent variables were shared experience (tutors either worked with the same or a different…

Do Tutors Matter? Assessing the Impact of Tutors on First-Year Academic Performance at a South African University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKay, Tracey Morton

2016-01-01

This research sought to determine if a teaching intervention using tutors in a South African university could promote epistemological access to university for first-year students. Although hiring, developing and managing tutors takes money, time and energy, the effectiveness of tutors in the South African context is underreported. The first-year…

Analysis of the Dynamics among Tutors in an After-School Tutoring Program in a Homeless Shelter for Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacGillivray, Laurie; Goode, Gretchen S.

2016-01-01

Researchers of after-school tutoring primarily focus on educational outcomes with little attention to the social dynamics of such programs. In our qualitative case study, we examined the nature of interactions among tutors in a tutoring program at a homeless shelter for families. Employing Bourdieu's concepts of "social capital" and…

Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit | Grid Modernization | NREL

Science.gov Websites

information, share tips The WIND Toolkit includes meteorological conditions and turbine power for more than Integration National Dataset Toolkit Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit is an update and expansion of the Eastern Wind Integration Data Set and

Tutoring Students to Achieve Objectives in Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ediger, Marlow

2017-01-01

Tutoring has always been a salient part of education and schooling. When attending elementary school, 1934-1942, selected pupils were tutored after school, free, with no extra salary for teachers. It was then considered customary, evidently, for teachers to tutor those needing extra assistance.

Blending Asynchronous Discussion Groups and Peer Tutoring in Higher Education: An Exploratory Study of Online Peer Tutoring Behaviour

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Smet, Marijke; Van Keer, Hilde; Valcke, Martin

2008-01-01

In the present study cross-age peer tutoring was implemented in a higher education context. Fourth-year students (N=39) operated as online tutors to support freshmen in discussing cases and solving authentic problems. This study contributes to a better understanding of the supportive interventions of tutors in asynchronous discussion groups. Peer…

Machine Tool Technology. Tutoring Strategies for Metal Workers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anoka-Hennepin Technical Coll., Minneapolis, MN.

This tutoring strategies course designed to prepare tutors in a machine tool technology program was developed during a project to retrain defense industry workers at risk of job loss or dislocation because of conversion of the defense industry. Course contents are as follows: why you are here; qualifications of a tutor; what's in it for tutors,…

Reciprocal Tutoring: Design with Cognitive Load Sharing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Chih-Yueh; Chan, Tak-Wai

2016-01-01

"Reciprocal tutoring," as reported in "Exploring the design of computer supports for reciprocal tutoring" (Chan and Chou 1997), has extended the meaning and scope of "intelligent tutoring" originally implemented in stand alone computers. This research is a follow-up to our studies on a "learning companion…

Scientific Data Analysis Toolkit: A Versatile Add-in to Microsoft Excel for Windows

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halpern, Arthur M.; Frye, Stephen L.; Marzzacco, Charles J.

2018-01-01

Scientific Data Analysis Toolkit (SDAT) is a rigorous, versatile, and user-friendly data analysis add-in application for Microsoft Excel for Windows (PC). SDAT uses the familiar Excel environment to carry out most of the analytical tasks used in data analysis. It has been designed for student use in manipulating and analyzing data encountered in…

Complementary Machine Intelligence and Human Intelligence in Virtual Teaching Assistant for Tutoring Program Tracing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Chih-Yueh; Huang, Bau-Hung; Lin, Chi-Jen

2011-01-01

This study proposes a virtual teaching assistant (VTA) to share teacher tutoring tasks in helping students practice program tracing and proposes two mechanisms of complementing machine intelligence and human intelligence to develop the VTA. The first mechanism applies machine intelligence to extend human intelligence (teacher answers) to evaluate…

Effectiveness of Peer Tutoring in Learning English among Tutors and Tutees of Class VIII Students in Kancheepuram DT

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marieswari, M.; Prema, N.

2016-01-01

The peer who teaches to their mates is peer tutoring. It is a common instructional strategy used in classrooms. The aim of this study is to know whether there is any improvement in achievement marks of tutors and tutees after the process of peer tutoring. Class VIII students were selected as the sample for the present experimental study. The…

Human-computer interaction in distributed supervisory control tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mitchell, Christine M.

1989-01-01

An overview of activities concerned with the development and applications of the Operator Function Model (OFM) is presented. The OFM is a mathematical tool to represent operator interaction with predominantly automated space ground control systems. The design and assessment of an intelligent operator aid (OFMspert and Ally) is particularly discussed. The application of OFM to represent the task knowledge in the design of intelligent tutoring systems, designated OFMTutor and ITSSO (Intelligent Tutoring System for Satellite Operators), is also described. Viewgraphs from symposia presentations are compiled along with papers addressing the intent inferencing capabilities of OFMspert, the OFMTutor system, and an overview of intelligent tutoring systems and the implications for complex dynamic systems.

Simulation-Based Cryosurgery Intelligent Tutoring System Prototype.

PubMed

Sehrawat, Anjali; Keelan, Robert; Shimada, Kenji; Wilfong, Dona M; McCormick, James T; Rabin, Yoed

2016-04-01

As a part of an ongoing effort to develop computerized training tools for cryosurgery, the current study presents a proof of concept for a computerized tool for cryosurgery tutoring. The tutoring system lists geometrical constraints of cryoprobes placement, simulates cryoprobe insertion, displays a rendered shape of the prostate, enables distance measurements, simulates the corresponding thermal history, and evaluates the mismatch between the target region shape and a preselected planning isotherm. The quality of trainee planning is measured in comparison with a computer-generated planning, created for each case study by previously developed planning algorithms. The following two versions of the tutoring system have been tested in the current study: (1) an unguided version, where the trainee can practice cases in unstructured sessions and (2) an intelligent tutoring system, which forces the trainee to follow specific steps, believed by the authors to potentially shorten the learning curve. Although the tutoring level in this study aims only at geometrical constraints on cryoprobe placement and the resulting thermal histories, it creates a unique opportunity to gain insight into the process outside the operation room. Post-test results indicate that the intelligent tutoring system may be more beneficial than the nonintelligent tutoring system, but the proof of concept is demonstrated with either system. © The Author(s) 2015.

Joining the Conversation: Scaffolding and Tutoring Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valkenburg, Jim

2010-01-01

Tutoring is one of those skills which require the ability to communicate an in-depth understanding of the subject. This article is about scaffolding while tutoring, and the tutoring talents described can be applied across the curriculum. Lev Vygotsky's ideas about communication and education play a key role in the development of scaffolding…

Automated Session-Quality Assessment for Human Tutoring Based on Expert Ratings of Tutoring Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nye, Benjamin D.; Morrison, Donald M.; Samei, Borhan

2015-01-01

Archived transcripts from tens of millions of online human tutoring sessions potentially contain important knowledge about how online tutors help, or fail to help, students learn. However, without ways of automatically analyzing these large corpora, any knowledge in this data will remain buried. One way to approach this issue is to train an…

Intelligent Tutor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

NASA also seeks to advance American education by employing the technology utilization process to develop a computerized, artificial intelligence-based Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) to help high school and college physics students. The tutoring system is designed for use with the lecture and laboratory portions of a typical physics instructional program. Its importance lies in its ability to observe continually as a student develops problem solutions and to intervene when appropriate with assistance specifically directed at the student's difficulty and tailored to his skill level and learning style. ITS originated as a project of the Johnson Space Center (JSC). It is being developed by JSC's Software Technology Branch in cooperation with Dr. R. Bowen Loftin at the University of Houston-Downtown. Program is jointly sponsored by NASA and ACOT (Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow). Other organizations providing support include Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the National Research Council, Pennzoil Products Company and the George R. Brown Foundation. The Physics I class of Clear Creek High School, League City, Texas are providing the classroom environment for test and evaluation of the system. The ITS is a spinoff product developed earlier to integrate artificial intelligence into training/tutoring systems for NASA astronauts flight controllers and engineers.

Tutoring Adolescents in Literacy: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jun, Seung Won; Ramirez, Gloria; Cumming, Alister

2010-01-01

What does research reveal about tutoring adolescents in literacy? We conducted a meta-analysis, identifying 152 published studies, of which 12 met rigorous inclusion criteria. We analyzed the 12 studies for the effects of tutoring according to the type, focus, and amount of tutoring; the number, age, and language background of students; and the…

Regulative Loops, Step Loops and Task Loops

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

VanLehn, Kurt

2016-01-01

This commentary suggests a generalization of the conception of the behavior of tutoring systems, which the target article characterized as having an outer loop that was executed once per task and an inner loop that was executed once per step of the task. A more general conception sees these two loops as instances of regulative loops, which…

The Attitudes and Opinions of Tutees and Tutors Towards Using Cross-Age Online Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Almassaad, Ahmad; Alotaibi, Khaled

2012-01-01

The research aims to identify the attitudes and opinions of tutees and tutors at King Saud University towards using cross-age online tutoring. An electronic survey and interviews were used to collect the data required for this study. A descriptive analysis was used as a research methodology. Thirty participants in this research were asked to…

A Multimedia Knowledge Representation for an "Intelligent" Computerized Tutor. Technical Report No. 142.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baggett, Patricia; Ehrenfeucht, Andrzej

The intended end product of the research project described is an "intelligent" multimedia tutoring system for procedural tasks, in particular, the repair of physical objects. This paper presents the data structure that will be used, i.e., a graph with five types of nodes (mental, abstract, motoric or action, visual, and verbal) and two types of…

Authoring Model-Tracing Cognitive Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blessing, Stephen B.; Gilbert, Stephen B.; Ourada, Stephen; Ritter, Steven

2009-01-01

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) that employ a model-tracing methodology have consistently shown their effectiveness. However, what evidently makes these tutors effective, the cognitive model embedded within them, has traditionally been difficult to create, requiring great expertise and time, both of which come at a cost. Furthermore, an…

Applied cognitive task analysis (ACTA): a practitioner's toolkit for understanding cognitive task demands.

PubMed

Militello, L G; Hutton, R J

1998-11-01

Cognitive task analysis (CTA) is a set of methods for identifying cognitive skills, or mental demands, needed to perform a task proficiently. The product of the task analysis can be used to inform the design of interfaces and training systems. However, CTA is resource intensive and has previously been of limited use to design practitioners. A streamlined method of CTA, Applied Cognitive Task Analysis (ACTA), is presented in this paper. ACTA consists of three interview methods that help the practitioner to extract information about the cognitive demands and skills required for a task. ACTA also allows the practitioner to represent this information in a format that will translate more directly into applied products, such as improved training scenarios or interface recommendations. This paper will describe the three methods, an evaluation study conducted to assess the usability and usefulness of the methods, and some directions for future research for making cognitive task analysis accessible to practitioners. ACTA techniques were found to be easy to use, flexible, and to provide clear output. The information and training materials developed based on ACTA interviews were found to be accurate and important for training purposes.

Intelligent tutoring systems for systems engineering methodologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meyer, Richard J.; Toland, Joel; Decker, Louis

1991-01-01

The general goal is to provide the technology required to build systems that can provide intelligent tutoring in IDEF (Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing Definition Method) modeling. The following subject areas are covered: intelligent tutoring systems for systems analysis methodologies; IDEF tutor architecture and components; developing cognitive skills for IDEF modeling; experimental software; and PC based prototype.

Tutor Reference Manual. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, John T., Ed.; Williams, Ron, Jr., Ed.

This manual, intended for use by tutors working with adults learning to read, offers a consolidated resource of specific instructional techniques and provides additional suggestions not covered in basic tutoring workshops. The manual summarizes a variety of approaches commonly used to instruct adults and provides background for three modes of…

Stupid Tutoring Systems, Intelligent Humans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Ryan S.

2016-01-01

The initial vision for intelligent tutoring systems involved powerful, multi-faceted systems that would leverage rich models of students and pedagogies to create complex learning interactions. But the intelligent tutoring systems used at scale today are much simpler. In this article, I present hypotheses on the factors underlying this development,…

The Reconstruction Toolkit (RTK), an open-source cone-beam CT reconstruction toolkit based on the Insight Toolkit (ITK)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rit, S.; Vila Oliva, M.; Brousmiche, S.; Labarbe, R.; Sarrut, D.; Sharp, G. C.

2014-03-01

We propose the Reconstruction Toolkit (RTK, http://www.openrtk.org), an open-source toolkit for fast cone-beam CT reconstruction, based on the Insight Toolkit (ITK) and using GPU code extracted from Plastimatch. RTK is developed by an open consortium (see affiliations) under the non-contaminating Apache 2.0 license. The quality of the platform is daily checked with regression tests in partnership with Kitware, the company supporting ITK. Several features are already available: Elekta, Varian and IBA inputs, multi-threaded Feldkamp-David-Kress reconstruction on CPU and GPU, Parker short scan weighting, multi-threaded CPU and GPU forward projectors, etc. Each feature is either accessible through command line tools or C++ classes that can be included in independent software. A MIDAS community has been opened to share CatPhan datasets of several vendors (Elekta, Varian and IBA). RTK will be used in the upcoming cone-beam CT scanner developed by IBA for proton therapy rooms. Many features are under development: new input format support, iterative reconstruction, hybrid Monte Carlo / deterministic CBCT simulation, etc. RTK has been built to freely share tomographic reconstruction developments between researchers and is open for new contributions.

Learning from a Computer Tutor with Natural Language Capabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michael, Joel; Rovick, Allen; Glass, Michael; Zhou, Yujian; Evens, Martha

2003-01-01

CIRCSIM-Tutor is a computer tutor designed to carry out a natural language dialogue with a medical student. Its domain is the baroreceptor reflex, the part of the cardiovascular system that is responsible for maintaining a constant blood pressure. CIRCSIM-Tutor's interaction with students is modeled after the tutoring behavior of two experienced…

The near-peer tutoring programme: embracing the 'doctors-to-teach' philosophy - a comparison of the effects of participation between the senior and junior near-peer tutors.

PubMed

Liew, Siaw-Cheok; Sow, Chew-Fei; Sidhu, Jagmohni; Nadarajah, Vishna Devi

2015-01-01

Background While there is an increasing pool of literature documenting the benefits of near-peer tutoring programme, little is known about the benefits for junior and senior peer tutors. Knowledge of the peer tutors' perceived benefits at different levels of seniority will aid in the development of a near-peer tutoring programme that will better fulfil both curricula and personal aspirations of near-peer tutors. We, therefore, investigated the perceived benefits of participation in a near-peer tutoring programme for junior as well as senior near-peer tutors. Methods Pre- and post-participation questionnaires were distributed to near-peer tutors after their clinical skills teaching sessions with Phase I undergraduate medical students. The Peer Tutor Assessment Instrument questionnaires were distributed to the 1) students, and to the 2) near-peer tutors (junior and senior) after each teaching and learning session for self-evaluation. Results The senior near-peer tutors felt that their participation in the programme had enhanced their skills (p=0.03). As a whole, the near-peer tutors were more motivated (Pre 5.32±0.46; Post 5.47±0.50; p=0.210) to participate in future teaching sessions but did not expect that having teaching experiences would make teaching as their major career path in the future (Pre 4.63±1.07; Post 4.54±0.98; p=0.701). The senior near-peer tutors were evaluated significantly higher by the students (p=0.0001). Students' evaluations of near-peer tutors on the domain of critical analysis was higher than self-evaluations (p=0.003). Conclusions Generally, the near-peer tutors perceived that they have benefited most in their skills enhancement and these near-peer tutors were scored highly by the students. However, senior near-peer tutors do not perceive that the programme has a lasting impact on their choice of career path.

The near-peer tutoring programme: embracing the 'doctors-to-teach' philosophy--a comparison of the effects of participation between the senior and junior near-peer tutors.

PubMed

Liew, Siaw-Cheok; Sow, Chew-Fei; Sidhu, Jagmohni; Nadarajah, Vishna Devi

2015-01-01

While there is an increasing pool of literature documenting the benefits of near-peer tutoring programme, little is known about the benefits for junior and senior peer tutors. Knowledge of the peer tutors' perceived benefits at different levels of seniority will aid in the development of a near-peer tutoring programme that will better fulfil both curricula and personal aspirations of near-peer tutors. We, therefore, investigated the perceived benefits of participation in a near-peer tutoring programme for junior as well as senior near-peer tutors. Pre- and post-participation questionnaires were distributed to near-peer tutors after their clinical skills teaching sessions with Phase I undergraduate medical students. The Peer Tutor Assessment Instrument questionnaires were distributed to the 1) students, and to the 2) near-peer tutors (junior and senior) after each teaching and learning session for self-evaluation. The senior near-peer tutors felt that their participation in the programme had enhanced their skills (p=0.03). As a whole, the near-peer tutors were more motivated (Pre 5.32±0.46; Post 5.47±0.50; p=0.210) to participate in future teaching sessions but did not expect that having teaching experiences would make teaching as their major career path in the future (Pre 4.63±1.07; Post 4.54±0.98; p=0.701). The senior near-peer tutors were evaluated significantly higher by the students (p=0.0001). Students' evaluations of near-peer tutors on the domain of critical analysis was higher than self-evaluations (p=0.003). Generally, the near-peer tutors perceived that they have benefited most in their skills enhancement and these near-peer tutors were scored highly by the students. However, senior near-peer tutors do not perceive that the programme has a lasting impact on their choice of career path.

Two approaches to physics tutoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Solomaniuck, Tania

One in two first-year students at science or biomedical faculties fail in basic subjects such as mathematics, chemistry or physics. Course-specific tutoring is one of the available means for improving their performance. In the present research, two tutoring models are developed. Both incorporate independent learning, but from different perspectives and priorities. A pragmatic tutoring approach. The first part of the thesis describes the search process for an optimal course-specific tutoring strategy for a standard first-year physics course in life sciences curricula. After a number of empirical research rounds, a pragmatic compromise emerged as the most suitable form of tutoring. The approach is characterised by: (1) priority to questions from students; (2) a high degree of interactivity with the tutor and among students; (3) due consideration to the number of questions to be dealt with and the depth in which they should be discussed. Most students participating in the tutoring sessions expressed their satisfaction and performed sufficiently well in their exams. However, there was still a problem: the students' insight into the course material was restricted to first-order processing of the syllabus. While this would be satisfactory in non-scientific study programmes, it is deemed insufficient in programmes where deeper insight is required in order that students be able to deal adequately with new conceptual questions or problems. In-depth tutoring. In science programmes, the core objective is for students to acquire in-depth knowledge. Therefore, science educators are designing and studying teaching methods that are geared not only to the acquisition of in-depth knowledge as such, but also to the motivation of students to take a more in-depth approach to learning. Some of the crucial notions in their research are: the extent to which the course content ties in with students' prior knowledge, problem-setting strategies and concept-context linking. 'In

Development and implementation of a technical and didactical training program for student tutors in the dissection course.

PubMed

Shiozawa, Thomas; Hirt, Bernhard; Celebi, Nora; Baur, Friederike; Weyrich, Peter; Lammerding-Köppel, Maria

2010-12-20

student tutors have a long tradition in gross anatomy instruction. However, the full potential of the tutors is generally not tapped, since little attention is paid to their technical and didactical training. The aim of this paper is to report a systematic approach to the development, didactic reasoning and implementation of a curriculum for training student tutors in gross anatomy. the training program was developed using the six-step approach of Kern's curriculum development model. For needs assessment, the literature research was amended by a survey among the 1st and 2nd year students of the dissection course (n=167) and two independent 90 min focus group interviews with the tutors who supervised these students (n=15). Protocols were transcribed and analyzed by margin coding. The training curriculum was setup on the basis of these data. corresponding to the literature, the students want student tutors with good teaching competence as well as adequate content knowledge and technical competence. Supporting that, the tutors request a training program enhancing their didactic skills as well as their knowledge of content and working using relevant methods. Thus, a combined didactic and professional training program has been developed. Six professional and 11 didactic learning objectives were defined. A 3 weeks training curriculum was implemented, using microteaching and group exercises for didactics and active dissection for technical training. Both parts were interlocked on a contextual and practical level. our focus group analyses revealed that a specific training program for student tutors in the dissection course is necessary. We describe a feasible task-oriented training curriculum combining didactic and professional objectives. 2010. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Toolkit for US colleges/schools of pharmacy to prepare learners for careers in academia.

PubMed

Haines, Seena L; Summa, Maria A; Peeters, Michael J; Dy-Boarman, Eliza A; Boyle, Jaclyn A; Clifford, Kalin M; Willson, Megan N

2017-09-01

The objective of this article is to provide an academic toolkit for use by colleges/schools of pharmacy to prepare student pharmacists/residents for academic careers. Through the American Association of Colleges of Pharmac (AACP) Section of Pharmacy Practice, the Student Resident Engagement Task Force (SRETF) collated teaching materials used by colleges/schools of pharmacy from a previously reported national survey. The SRETF developed a toolkit for student pharmacists/residents interested in academic pharmacy. Eighteen institutions provided materials; five provided materials describing didactic coursework; over fifteen provided materials for an academia-focused Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE), while one provided materials for an APPE teaching-research elective. SRETF members created a syllabus template and sample lesson plan by integrating submitted resources. Submissions still needed to complete the toolkit include examples of curricular tracks and certificate programs. Pharmacy faculty vacancies still exist in pharmacy education. Engaging student pharmacists/residents about academia pillars of teaching, scholarship and service is critical for the future success of the academy. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A General Architecture for Intelligent Tutoring of Diagnostic Classification Problem Solving

PubMed Central

Crowley, Rebecca S.; Medvedeva, Olga

2003-01-01

We report on a general architecture for creating knowledge-based medical training systems to teach diagnostic classification problem solving. The approach is informed by our previous work describing the development of expertise in classification problem solving in Pathology. The architecture envelops the traditional Intelligent Tutoring System design within the Unified Problem-solving Method description Language (UPML) architecture, supporting component modularity and reuse. Based on the domain ontology, domain task ontology and case data, the abstract problem-solving methods of the expert model create a dynamic solution graph. Student interaction with the solution graph is filtered through an instructional layer, which is created by a second set of abstract problem-solving methods and pedagogic ontologies, in response to the current state of the student model. We outline the advantages and limitations of this general approach, and describe it’s implementation in SlideTutor–a developing Intelligent Tutoring System in Dermatopathology. PMID:14728159

"Handy Manny" and the Emergent Literacy Technology Toolkit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hourcade, Jack J.; Parette, Howard P., Jr.; Boeckmann, Nichole; Blum, Craig

2010-01-01

This paper outlines the use of a technology toolkit to support emergent literacy curriculum and instruction in early childhood education settings. Components of the toolkit include hardware and software that can facilitate key emergent literacy skills. Implementation of the comprehensive technology toolkit enhances the development of these…

The Tutor as Coach, Commentator, and Counselor.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Muriel

While tutoring on a one-to-one basis is not in and of itself a magic way to teach, it can realize many potential benefits. The tutor must learn to operate effectively in at least three roles: as coach, as commentator, and as counselor. As a coach, a tutor is a trainer, an encouraging helper who tells learners what they need to know in order to…

Interfacing Email Tutoring: Shaping an Emergent Literate Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Dana

2002-01-01

Presents a descriptive analysis of 29 online writing lab sites for email tutoring, currently the most popular mode of computer-mediated collaboration. Considers how email tutoring interfaces represent the literate practice of email tutoring, shaping expectations and experiences consistent with its literate aims. Suggests that email tutoring…

A qualitative study of clinic and community member perspectives on intervention toolkits: "Unless the toolkit is used it won't help solve the problem".

PubMed

Davis, Melinda M; Howk, Sonya; Spurlock, Margaret; McGinnis, Paul B; Cohen, Deborah J; Fagnan, Lyle J

2017-07-18

Intervention toolkits are common products of grant-funded research in public health and primary care settings. Toolkits are designed to address the knowledge translation gap by speeding implementation and dissemination of research into practice. However, few studies describe characteristics of effective intervention toolkits and their implementation. Therefore, we conducted this study to explore what clinic and community-based users want in intervention toolkits and to identify the factors that support application in practice. In this qualitative descriptive study we conducted focus groups and interviews with a purposive sample of community health coalition members, public health experts, and primary care professionals between November 2010 and January 2012. The transdisciplinary research team used thematic analysis to identify themes and a cross-case comparative analysis to explore variation by participant role and toolkit experience. Ninety six participants representing primary care (n = 54, 56%) and community settings (n = 42, 44%) participated in 18 sessions (13 focus groups, five key informant interviews). Participants ranged from those naïve through expert in toolkit development; many reported limited application of toolkits in actual practice. Participants wanted toolkits targeted at the right audience and demonstrated to be effective. Well organized toolkits, often with a quick start guide, with tools that were easy to tailor and apply were desired. Irrespective of perceived quality, participants experienced with practice change emphasized that leadership, staff buy-in, and facilitative support was essential for intervention toolkits to be translated into changes in clinic or public -health practice. Given the emphasis on toolkits in supporting implementation and dissemination of research and clinical guidelines, studies are warranted to determine when and how toolkits are used. Funders, policy makers, researchers, and leaders in primary care and

Tutor perceptions of the use of a reflective portfolio within a pastoral tutor system to facilitate undergraduate personal development planning.

PubMed

Ellis, J S; Hobson, R S; Waterhouse, P J; Meechan, J G; Hogg, S D; Whitworth, J M; Thomason, J M

2006-11-01

All Higher Education Institutions in the UK are now required to provide transcripts of student activity and outcomes of summative assessments. In addition, the student should be able to reflect on their learning and plan their own development. This article reports on the staff evaluation of the use of a reflective portfolio facilitating the production of highly individualised personal development plans within an existing tutor system. A number of significant issues are highlighted; tutor systems adopting this approach must maintain flexibility for managing student crises when they arise, the difference between appraisal and assessment needs clear definition for both students and tutors, training in basic mentoring skills should be provided for all tutors, tutors should be aware of the difficulties many students experience with reflection and also be alert to the over reflective learner.

Climate Change Toolkit-Case study: Switzerland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashraf Vaghefi, Saeid

2017-04-01

This paper describes the development of a Climate Change Toolkit (CCT) to rapidly perform tasks needed in a climate change study. CCT consists of five modules: data extraction, global climate data management, bias correction, spatial interpolation, and critical consecutive day analyzer to calculate extreme events. CCT is linked to an archive of big dataset consisting of daily global historic (CRU, 1970-2005), and global GCM data (1960-2099) from 5 models and 4 carbon scenarios. Application of CCT in Switzerland using ensemble results of scenario RCP8.5 showed an increase in Max temperature, and a wide change in precipitation. Frequency of dry periods will likely increase. The frequency of wet periods suggests higher risk of flooding in the country.

Linguistic Politeness and Peer Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Diana Calhoun; Arnold, Holly; Haddock, Rebecca

2009-01-01

The goal of this research was to use politeness theory to analyze the developing tutorial relationship between students and peer tutors in a university writing center. The study monitored two pairs of tutors and students over a period of six weeks, focusing on weeks one and six. Using partial transcripts of recorded sessions along with observation…

An Educational Neuroscience Perspective on Tutoring: To What Extent Can Electrophysiological Measures Improve the Contingency of Tutor Scaffolding and Feedback?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mercier, Julien; Bédard, Mélanie

2016-01-01

The efficacy of tutoring as an instructional strategy mainly lies on the moment-by-moment correspondence between the help provided by a tutor and the tutee's learning needs. The model presented in this paper emphasizes the pivotal role of monitoring and regulation, both by the tutor and the tutee, in attaining and maintaining affective and…

The Effectiveness of One-to-One Tutoring by Community Tutors for At-Risk Beginning Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vadasy, Patricia F.; Jenkins, Joseph R.; Antil, Lawrence R.; Wayne, Susan K.; O'Connor, Rollanda E.

1997-01-01

Twenty at-risk first graders received 30 minutes of individual instruction from community tutors four days a week for up to 23 weeks. Subjects outperformed the control group on all reading, decoding, spelling and segmenting, and writing measures. Tutors who implemented the program with a high degree of fidelity achieved significant effect sizes in…

[The good PBL tutor--to be or not to be: instructional films for tutors].

PubMed

Skelin, Silvia; Huwendiek, Sören; Nikendei, Christoph; Dieter, Peter; Kirschfink, Michael; Bosse, Hans-Martin

2008-01-01

Many faculties worldwide apply the method of problem-based learning (PBL) in their curricula as a form of instruction by which students in small groups develop problem-solving strategies on the basis of a specific case. This approach fosters self-responsible and context-dependent learning, which aims at providing an improved anchoring of knowledge. For this reason, the previous decades have seen a distribution of the method to medical schools across the world. The role of the tutor assumes particular importance since, in contrast to the traditional university system, he or she serves as a facilitator who fosters and structures content-related and group-dynamic learning processes. In some cases, this requires an intervention by the tutor. The major challenge is to intervene at the right time and in an appropriate manner. This paper presents examples of difficult PBL situations using short film sequences to demonstrate and comments on potential approaches of the tutor in attempting to resolve the problem. Standard problem situations within a PBL tutorial were defined and produced in a film. A collection of seven frequent critical PBL situations are presented in short film sequences. Potential instruments of intervention are demonstrated in the videos and discussed. The film sequences may be downloaded in the supplementary of the electronic version of this article (www.sciencedirect.com). Within the framework of a tutor-training programme, the problematic situations and interventions presented in this article will help to sensitise tutors to potentially critical PBL tutorial situations and aid the development of individual resolution approaches.

Toward a Computational Model of Tutoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woolf, Beverly Park

1992-01-01

Discusses the integration of instructional science and computer science. Topics addressed include motivation for building knowledge-based systems; instructional design issues, including cognitive models, representing student intentions, and student models and error diagnosis; representing tutoring knowledge; building a tutoring system, including…

Medical students as peer tutors: a systematic review

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background While Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) has long occurred informally in medical education, in the past ten years, there has been increasing international interest in formally organised PAL, with many benefits for both the students and institutions. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to establish why and how PAL has been implemented, focussing on the recruitment and training process for peer tutors, the benefits for peer tutors, and the competency of peer tutors. Method A literature search was conducted in three electronic databases. Selection of titles and abstracts were made based on pre-determined eligibility criteria. We utilized the ‘AMEE Peer assisted learning: a planning and implementation framework: AMEE Guide no. 30’ to assist us in establishing the review aims in a systematic review of the literature between 2002 and 2012. Six key questions were developed and used in our analysis of particular aspects of PAL programs within medical degree programs. Results We found nineteen articles that satisfied our inclusion criteria. The PAL activities fell into three broad categories of teacher training, peer teaching and peer assessment. Variability was found in the reporting of tutor recruitment and training processes, tutor outcomes, and tutor competencies. Conclusion Results from this review suggest that there are many perceived learning benefits for student tutors. However, there were mixed results regarding the accuracy of peer assessment and feedback, and no substantial evidence to conclude that participation as a peer tutor improves one’s own examination performance. Further research into PAL in medicine is required if we are to better understand the relative impact and benefits for student tutors. PMID:24912500

SPIRIT: An Evolutionally Designed Intelligent Tutoring System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-07-01

system’s backward reasoning approach. Instead, the student makes his moves while the mentor analyzes his progress, and whenever appropriate it...mentor in the final system makes backward reasoning explicit rather than implicit. Another problem in the second round was that the tutor did not...tutoring systems today are far less competent than the experienced tutor. One orthe reasons ror this is the lack of a well rounded theory of

The Effectiveness of Tutoring on Developmental English Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vick, Nicholas; Robles-Piña, Rebecca A.; Martirosyan, Nara M.; Kite, Valerie

2015-01-01

Tutoring is an important form of academic support for developmental education students. A comparison study was conducted to investigate the benefits of tutoring on the final grades for developmental English students who participated in tutoring versus those students who did not. The final grades for three consecutive semesters were analyzed to…

SIGKit: Software for Introductory Geophysics Toolkit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kruse, S.; Bank, C. G.; Esmaeili, S.; Jazayeri, S.; Liu, S.; Stoikopoulos, N.

2017-12-01

The Software for Introductory Geophysics Toolkit (SIGKit) affords students the opportunity to create model data and perform simple processing of field data for various geophysical methods. SIGkit provides a graphical user interface built with the MATLAB programming language, but can run even without a MATLAB installation. At this time SIGkit allows students to pick first arrivals and match a two-layer model to seismic refraction data; grid total-field magnetic data, extract a profile, and compare this to a synthetic profile; and perform simple processing steps (subtraction of a mean trace, hyperbola fit) to ground-penetrating radar data. We also have preliminary tools for gravity, resistivity, and EM data representation and analysis. SIGkit is being built by students for students, and the intent of the toolkit is to provide an intuitive interface for simple data analysis and understanding of the methods, and act as an entrance to more sophisticated software. The toolkit has been used in introductory courses as well as field courses. First reactions from students are positive. Think-aloud observations of students using the toolkit have helped identify problems and helped shape it. We are planning to compare the learning outcomes of students who have used the toolkit in a field course to students in a previous course to test its effectiveness.

Object Toolkit Version 4.3 User’s Manual

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-31

unlimited. (OPS-17-12855 dtd 19 Jan 2017) 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT Object Toolkit is a finite - element model builder specifically designed for...INTRODUCTION 1 What Is Object Toolkit? Object Toolkit is a finite - element model builder specifically designed for creating representations of spacecraft...Nascap-2k and EPIC, the user is not required to purchase or learn expensive finite element generators to create system models. Second, Object Toolkit

Preservice Teachers' Perceptions about Computer Use for Tutoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willner, Elizabeth; Willner, Jonathan

Preservice teachers had the opportunity to make use of computers while tutoring elementary and middle school children in reading, mathematics, and integrated reading and mathematics. These tutors (n=128) responded to a survey that was designed to elicit responses about the value of computer use for tutoring and the motivational and learning…

Student and Tutor Perspectives of On-Line Moderation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Packham, Gary; Jones, Paul; Thomas, Brychan; Miller, Christopher

2006-01-01

Purpose: The on-line tutor or e-moderator faces a diversity of new challenges, including instructional design, organisation, direct instruction and facilitating discourse. This study aims to contrast the views of students and tutors regarding what factors constitute effective e-moderation in order to identify key attributes of an on-line tutor.…

International Students as Peer Tutors: Is It Lawful?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leach-López, Maria A.

2010-01-01

Students enrolled in Principles of Accounting courses might require peer tutoring services. Accounting Departments (schools) can assist these students by maintaining a list of students offering tutoring services for a fee. The opportunity to be included in the list of tutors must be offered to all university students, both domestic and foreign.…

Who Am I as a Distance Tutor? An Investigation of Distance Tutors' Professional Identity in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xiao, Junhong

2016-01-01

Much research has been conducted in the area of teacher professional identity in the past decades. Nonetheless, very little attention has been paid to the professional identity of tutors in distance education. Using interviews, this study set out to investigate distance tutors' claimed and assigned professional identities, their actual, ought and…

28 CFR 544.83 - Inmate tutors.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Inmate tutors. 544.83 Section 544.83 Judicial Administration BUREAU OF PRISONS, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATION Education, Training and Leisure-Time Program Standards § 544.83 Inmate tutors. Institutions may establish an...

28 CFR 544.83 - Inmate tutors.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Inmate tutors. 544.83 Section 544.83 Judicial Administration BUREAU OF PRISONS, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATION Education, Training and Leisure-Time Program Standards § 544.83 Inmate tutors. Institutions may establish an...

Pygmalion effects among outreach supervisors and tutors: extending sex generalizability.

PubMed

Natanovich, Gloria; Eden, Dov

2008-11-01

Students who supervised other students who tutored grade-school pupils in a university-based outreach program were randomly assigned to Pygmalion and control conditions. Experimental supervisors were told that their tutors were ideally qualified for their tutoring role; control supervisors were told nothing about their tutors' qualifications. A manipulation check revealed that the experimental supervisors expected more of their tutors. Analysis of variance of tutorial success measures confirmed the Pygmalion effect among supervisors of both sexes. No main effect or interaction involving either supervisor sex or tutor sex was significant. As predicted, the experimental supervisors also provided better leadership and the experimental tutors increased their self-efficacy. This was the first demonstration of the Pygmalion effect among women leading men. Pygmalion effects may be produced without regard for sex.

The Politics of Tutoring: Feminism within the Patriarchy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woolbright, Meg

1992-01-01

Examines a writing conference between a tutor and a student, both feminists. Discusses the conflicts expressed by the tutor and the student as they attempt to espouse feminist values within a patriarchal system. Concludes that feminism (and good tutoring) will have a chance only if students have options and the power to choose. (RS)

Technology Toolkit.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooklyn Public Library, NY.

This reference resource identifies issues concerning technology use in library literacy programs and describes approaches that work at the Brooklyn (New York) Public Library. Section 1 discusses the learning centers at the library, including its mission, philosophy, curriculum, technology, volunteer tutors, and active learning environment. Section…

Every Place Counts Leadership Academy : transportation toolkit quick guide

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-12-01

This is a quick guide to the Transportation Toolkit. The Transportation Toolkit is meant to explain the transportation process to members of the public with no prior knowledge of transportation. The Toolkit is meant to demystify transportation and he...

The Virtual Physiological Human ToolKit.

PubMed

Cooper, Jonathan; Cervenansky, Frederic; De Fabritiis, Gianni; Fenner, John; Friboulet, Denis; Giorgino, Toni; Manos, Steven; Martelli, Yves; Villà-Freixa, Jordi; Zasada, Stefan; Lloyd, Sharon; McCormack, Keith; Coveney, Peter V

2010-08-28

The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) is a major European e-Science initiative intended to support the development of patient-specific computer models and their application in personalized and predictive healthcare. The VPH Network of Excellence (VPH-NoE) project is tasked with facilitating interaction between the various VPH projects and addressing issues of common concern. A key deliverable is the 'VPH ToolKit'--a collection of tools, methodologies and services to support and enable VPH research, integrating and extending existing work across Europe towards greater interoperability and sustainability. Owing to the diverse nature of the field, a single monolithic 'toolkit' is incapable of addressing the needs of the VPH. Rather, the VPH ToolKit should be considered more as a 'toolbox' of relevant technologies, interacting around a common set of standards. The latter apply to the information used by tools, including any data and the VPH models themselves, and also to the naming and categorizing of entities and concepts involved. Furthermore, the technologies and methodologies available need to be widely disseminated, and relevant tools and services easily found by researchers. The VPH-NoE has thus created an online resource for the VPH community to meet this need. It consists of a database of tools, methods and services for VPH research, with a Web front-end. This has facilities for searching the database, for adding or updating entries, and for providing user feedback on entries. Anyone is welcome to contribute.

A Conversational Intelligent Tutoring System to Automatically Predict Learning Styles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Latham, Annabel; Crockett, Keeley; McLean, David; Edmonds, Bruce

2012-01-01

This paper proposes a generic methodology and architecture for developing a novel conversational intelligent tutoring system (CITS) called Oscar that leads a tutoring conversation and dynamically predicts and adapts to a student's learning style. Oscar aims to mimic a human tutor by implicitly modelling the learning style during tutoring, and…

Notes From the Field: Secondary Task Precision for Cognitive Load Estimation During Virtual Reality Surgical Simulation Training.

PubMed

Rasmussen, Sebastian R; Konge, Lars; Mikkelsen, Peter T; Sørensen, Mads S; Andersen, Steven A W

2016-03-01

Cognitive load (CL) theory suggests that working memory can be overloaded in complex learning tasks such as surgical technical skills training, which can impair learning. Valid and feasible methods for estimating the CL in specific learning contexts are necessary before the efficacy of CL-lowering instructional interventions can be established. This study aims to explore secondary task precision for the estimation of CL in virtual reality (VR) surgical simulation and also investigate the effects of CL-modifying factors such as simulator-integrated tutoring and repeated practice. Twenty-four participants were randomized for visual assistance by a simulator-integrated tutor function during the first 5 of 12 repeated mastoidectomy procedures on a VR temporal bone simulator. Secondary task precision was found to be significantly lower during simulation compared with nonsimulation baseline, p < .001. Contrary to expectations, simulator-integrated tutoring and repeated practice did not have an impact on secondary task precision. This finding suggests that even though considerable changes in CL are reflected in secondary task precision, it lacks sensitivity. In contrast, secondary task reaction time could be more sensitive, but requires substantial postprocessing of data. Therefore, future studies on the effect of CL modifying interventions should weigh the pros and cons of the various secondary task measurements. © The Author(s) 2015.

A Successful Peer Tutor Program to Improve Retention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Starks, Gretchen

The purpose of a peer tutoring program is to assist those students who require ongoing and formal instruction in a subject area. If effectively run, it can have an impact on retention. There are five areas that need to be addressed when initiating a peer tutor program: (1) organization and funding; (2) supervision; (3) tutor training; (4) tutor…

Development of Peer Tutoring Services to Support Osteopathic Medical Students' Academic Success.

PubMed

Swindle, Nicholas; Wimsatt, Leslie

2015-11-01

Peer tutoring can benefit both tutors and tutored students, but information is lacking regarding establishing and measuring outcomes of such a program at new medical schools. To examine the outcomes of a pilot peer tutoring initiative and explore the implications for long-term program development. Fifty-one osteopathic medical students who participated in a pilot peer tutoring program during the 2013-2014 academic year were surveyed regarding satisfaction with the program. Course grade means for the tutors (all courses) and tutored students (specific courses) were analyzed before and after participating in the tutoring experience. Data analyses were performed using frequency distributions, t tests, and qualitative assessment of emergent themes. The survey had a 76% response rate (39 of 51 students). Both tutored students and tutors were satisfied with the tutoring program. Statistically significant changes in course grades for the tutored courses were noted at 3 to 4 and 8 to 9 months among the tutored students who were most at risk for failure (P=.001). Tutor course grades showed no significant changes for any of the courses in which they were enrolled (P=.445). Learning gains were realized by the students at greatest academic risk. Additional research is needed to evaluate long-term outcomes.

Network Science Research Laboratory (NSRL) Discrete Event Toolkit

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-01

ARL-TR-7579 ● JAN 2016 US Army Research Laboratory Network Science Research Laboratory (NSRL) Discrete Event Toolkit by...Laboratory (NSRL) Discrete Event Toolkit by Theron Trout and Andrew J Toth Computational and Information Sciences Directorate, ARL...Research Laboratory (NSRL) Discrete Event Toolkit 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) Theron Trout

Tracker Toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewis, Steven J.; Palacios, David M.

2013-01-01

This software can track multiple moving objects within a video stream simultaneously, use visual features to aid in the tracking, and initiate tracks based on object detection in a subregion. A simple programmatic interface allows plugging into larger image chain modeling suites. It extracts unique visual features for aid in tracking and later analysis, and includes sub-functionality for extracting visual features about an object identified within an image frame. Tracker Toolkit utilizes a feature extraction algorithm to tag each object with metadata features about its size, shape, color, and movement. Its functionality is independent of the scale of objects within a scene. The only assumption made on the tracked objects is that they move. There are no constraints on size within the scene, shape, or type of movement. The Tracker Toolkit is also capable of following an arbitrary number of objects in the same scene, identifying and propagating the track of each object from frame to frame. Target objects may be specified for tracking beforehand, or may be dynamically discovered within a tripwire region. Initialization of the Tracker Toolkit algorithm includes two steps: Initializing the data structures for tracked target objects, including targets preselected for tracking; and initializing the tripwire region. If no tripwire region is desired, this step is skipped. The tripwire region is an area within the frames that is always checked for new objects, and all new objects discovered within the region will be tracked until lost (by leaving the frame, stopping, or blending in to the background).

Peer Tutoring in Programming: Lessons Learned

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerhardt, Jill; Olan, Michael

2010-01-01

This article describes our experience with peer tutoring in introductory programming courses. This tutoring concept was one of the integral support services out of five student services, which were part of a National Science Foundation Grant, designed to improve education, increase retention, improve professional development and employability, and…

5 Ways to Improve Tutoring Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Edward E.

2009-01-01

Tutoring has become a familiar tool that schools use to reinforce classroom teaching and improve student achievement. That's especially been the case because of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and its provisions for supplemental education. Educators faced with developing or supporting tutoring services for students should consider five practical…

Peer Tutoring as a Technique for Teaching the Unmotivated

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohan, Madan

1971-01-01

In an 8-month peer tutoring program, unmotivated children in grades 7 and 8 tutored unmotivated children in grades 2 and 3. Improvements in attitude and behavior resulted for both tutors and tutees, with the exception of one emotionally disturbed child. (MK)

Introducing GHOST: The Geospace/Heliosphere Observation & Simulation Tool-kit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, J. J.; Elkington, S. R.; Schmitt, P.; Wiltberger, M. J.; Baker, D. N.

2013-12-01

Simulation models of the heliospheric and geospace environments can provide key insights into the geoeffective potential of solar disturbances such as Coronal Mass Ejections and High Speed Solar Wind Streams. Advanced post processing of the results of these simulations greatly enhances the utility of these models for scientists and other researchers. Currently, no supported centralized tool exists for performing these processing tasks. With GHOST, we introduce a toolkit for the ParaView visualization environment that provides a centralized suite of tools suited for Space Physics post processing. Building on the work from the Center For Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) Knowledge Transfer group, GHOST is an open-source tool suite for ParaView. The tool-kit plugin currently provides tools for reading LFM and Enlil data sets, and provides automated tools for data comparison with NASA's CDAweb database. As work progresses, many additional tools will be added and through open-source collaboration, we hope to add readers for additional model types, as well as any additional tools deemed necessary by the scientific public. The ultimate end goal of this work is to provide a complete Sun-to-Earth model analysis toolset.

A tutoring package to teach pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese characters.

PubMed

Wu, Hang; Miller, L Keith

2007-01-01

We examined the effects of a tutoring package (verbal modeling, prompts, and contingent praise/ Chinese conversations with the tutor) on the performance of a college student's Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. The effects of the tutoring package were analyzed using a multiple baseline design across two sets of 50 Chinese characters. The tutoring package produced improvement in the student's correct pronunciation of Chinese characters from 48% (pretutoring) to 90% (posttutoring). Results suggested that the tutoring package produced mastery pronunciation of targeted Mandarin Chinese vocalizations by a nonnative speaker.

Every Place Counts Leadership Academy transportation toolkit

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-12-01

The Transportation Toolkit is meant to explain the transportation process to members of the public with no prior knowledge of transportation. The Toolkit is meant to demystify transportation and help people engage in local transportation decision-mak...

Tutors Can Improve Students' Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson-Royes, Andrea M.

2013-01-01

In this article the author suggests that tutoring has helped students to become more organized, self-assured, and proficient at identifying relationships between ideas. Successful tutoring requires: (1) at least one attentive adult who has the time to speak with students about academic matters, personal problems, and the importance of performing…

Instructional Efficiency of Tutoring in an Outreach Gene Technology Laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scharfenberg, Franz-Josef; Bogner, Franz X.

2013-06-01

Our research objective focused on examining the instructional efficiency of tutoring as a form of instructional change as opposed to a non-tutoring approach in an outreach laboratory. We designed our laboratory based on cognitive load (CL) theory. Altogether, 269 twelfth-graders participated in our day-long module Genetic Fingerprinting. In a quasi-experimental design, the control group ( n = 121) followed the non-tutoring approach previously used, while the treatment group ( n = 148) followed the newly developed tutoring approach. Each tutor was in charge of two student work groups and recorded the tutoring activities requested by the tutees throughout the day. We measured the students' invested mental effort (as an index of CL), cognitive achievement (in a pre-post-follow-up design), and the students' cooperation in their work groups as well as calculated the student instructional involvement (as a motivational variable). Additionally, we examined which aspects of the hands-on phases were of particular relevance to the students' invested mental effort. Unexpectedly, the combined mental effort and cognitive achievement data indicated that our implemented tutoring approach resulted in a lower instructional efficiency despite the relevance of tutoring for students' mental effort invested during the experimental phases. Most of the tutor assistance was unnecessarily requested for performing the procedural steps and using the equipment. Our results indicate an assistance dilemma and consequently underscore the necessity for effective tutor preparation in outreach laboratories.

Effects of participation in a cross year peer tutoring programme in clinical examination skills on volunteer tutors' skills and attitudes towards teachers and teaching.

PubMed

Buckley, Sharon; Zamora, Javier

2007-06-28

Development of students' teaching skills is increasingly recognised as an important component of UK undergraduate medical curricula and, in consequence, there is renewed interest in the potential benefits of cross-year peer tutoring. Whilst several studies have described the use of cross-year peer tutoring in undergraduate medical courses, its use in the clinical setting is less well reported, particularly the effects of peer tutoring on volunteer tutors' views of teachers and teaching. This study explored the effects of participation in a cross-year peer tutoring programme in clinical examination skills ('OSCE tutor') on volunteer tutors' own skills and on their attitudes towards teachers and teaching. Volunteer tutors were final year MBChB students who took part in the programme as part of a Student Selected Component (SSC). Tutees were year 3 MBChB students preparing for their end of year 'OSCE' examination. Pre and post participation questionnaires, including both Likert-type and open response questions, were used. Paired data was compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. All tests were two-tailed with 5% significance level. Tutors reflected their cohort in terms of gender but were drawn from among the more academically successful final year students. Most had previous teaching experience. They were influenced to participate in 'OSCE tutor' by a desire to improve their own teaching and associated generic skills and by contextual factors relating to the organisation or previous experience of the OSCE tutor programme. Issues relating to longer term career aspirations were less important. After the event, tutors felt that participation had enhanced their skills in various areas, including practical teaching skills, confidence in speaking to groups and communication skills; and that as a result of taking part, they were now more likely to undertake further teacher training and to make teaching a major part of their career. However, whilst a number of students

Effects of participation in a cross year peer tutoring programme in clinical examination skills on volunteer tutors' skills and attitudes towards teachers and teaching

PubMed Central

Buckley, Sharon; Zamora, Javier

2007-01-01

Background Development of students' teaching skills is increasingly recognised as an important component of UK undergraduate medical curricula and, in consequence, there is renewed interest in the potential benefits of cross-year peer tutoring. Whilst several studies have described the use of cross-year peer tutoring in undergraduate medical courses, its use in the clinical setting is less well reported, particularly the effects of peer tutoring on volunteer tutors' views of teachers and teaching. This study explored the effects of participation in a cross-year peer tutoring programme in clinical examination skills ('OSCE tutor') on volunteer tutors' own skills and on their attitudes towards teachers and teaching. Methods Volunteer tutors were final year MBChB students who took part in the programme as part of a Student Selected Component (SSC). Tutees were year 3 MBChB students preparing for their end of year 'OSCE' examination. Pre and post participation questionnaires, including both Likert-type and open response questions, were used. Paired data was compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. All tests were two-tailed with 5% significance level. Results Tutors reflected their cohort in terms of gender but were drawn from among the more academically successful final year students. Most had previous teaching experience. They were influenced to participate in 'OSCE tutor' by a desire to improve their own teaching and associated generic skills and by contextual factors relating to the organisation or previous experience of the OSCE tutor programme. Issues relating to longer term career aspirations were less important. After the event, tutors felt that participation had enhanced their skills in various areas, including practical teaching skills, confidence in speaking to groups and communication skills; and that as a result of taking part, they were now more likely to undertake further teacher training and to make teaching a major part of their career. However

Peer Tutoring for Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Effects on Classroom Behavior and Academic Performance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuPaul, George J.; Ervin, Ruth A.; Hook, Christine L.; McGoey, Kara E.

1998-01-01

A study investigated effects of classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) on classroom behavior and academic performance of 18 students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). CWPT led to improvements in performance in math or spelling for 50% of students with ADHD, along with reductions in off-task behavior for most participants. (Author/CR)

A Tutoring Package to Teach Pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese Characters

PubMed Central

Wu, Hang; Keith Miller, L

2007-01-01

We examined the effects of a tutoring package (verbal modeling, prompts, and contingent praise/Chinese conversations with the tutor) on the performance of a college student's Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. The effects of the tutoring package were analyzed using a multiple baseline design across two sets of 50 Chinese characters. The tutoring package produced improvement in the student's correct pronunciation of Chinese characters from 48% (pretutoring) to 90% (posttutoring). Results suggested that the tutoring package produced mastery pronunciation of targeted Mandarin Chinese vocalizations by a nonnative speaker. PMID:17970274

Computer-Game-Based Tutoring of Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ke, Fengfeng

2013-01-01

This in-situ, descriptive case study examined the potential of implementing computer mathematics games as an anchor for tutoring of mathematics. Data were collected from middle school students at a rural pueblo school and an urban Hispanic-serving school, through in-field observation, content analysis of game-based tutoring-learning interactions,…

Teaching math skills to at-risk students using home-based peer tutoring.

PubMed

Mayfield, Kristin H; Vollmer, Timothy R

2007-01-01

Home-based peer tutoring was used to teach math skills to 4 girls with deficits in mathematics and histories of abuse or neglect. Girls living in the same home formed tutoring dyads, and each participant served as both the peer tutor and the tutee during the course of the study. At the initiation of the tutoring intervention, an expert tutor provided multiple 3-min tutoring sessions to the designated peer tutor on three or four mathematics skills. The peer tutor concurrently provided 3-min tutoring sessions on the same skills to the tutee using a multiple baseline design. Results showed that participants improved their performance on all target skills. Additional interventions were implemented for some skills to improve accuracy further. Maintenance tests were also administered after 3 to 5 months of no practice on the skills. Results showed that tutors and tutees maintained their accuracy on 7 of the 12 skills assessed.

Teaching Math Skills to At-risk Students Using Home-based Peer Tutoring

PubMed Central

Mayfield, Kristin H; Vollmer, Timothy R

2007-01-01

Home-based peer tutoring was used to teach math skills to 4 girls with deficits in mathematics and histories of abuse or neglect. Girls living in the same home formed tutoring dyads, and each participant served as both the peer tutor and the tutee during the course of the study. At the initiation of the tutoring intervention, an expert tutor provided multiple 3-min tutoring sessions to the designated peer tutor on three or four mathematics skills. The peer tutor concurrently provided 3-min tutoring sessions on the same skills to the tutee using a multiple baseline design. Results showed that participants improved their performance on all target skills. Additional interventions were implemented for some skills to improve accuracy further. Maintenance tests were also administered after 3 to 5 months of no practice on the skills. Results showed that tutors and tutees maintained their accuracy on 7 of the 12 skills assessed. PMID:17624064

A knowledge engineering taxonomy for intelligent tutoring system development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fink, Pamela K.; Herren, L. Tandy

1993-01-01

This paper describes a study addressing the issue of developing an appropriate mapping of knowledge acquisition methods to problem types for intelligent tutoring system development. Recent research has recognized that knowledge acquisition methodologies are not general across problem domains; the effectiveness of a method for obtaining knowledge depends on the characteristics of the domain and problem solving task. Southwest Research Institute developed a taxonomy of problem types by evaluating the characteristics that discriminate between problems and grouping problems that share critical characteristics. Along with the problem taxonomy, heuristics that guide the knowledge acquisition process based on the characteristics of the class are provided.

Capturing Petascale Application Characteristics with the Sequoia Toolkit

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vetter, Jeffrey S; Bhatia, Nikhil; Grobelny, Eric M

2005-01-01

Characterization of the computation, communication, memory, and I/O demands of current scientific applications is crucial for identifying which technologies will enable petascale scientific computing. In this paper, we present the Sequoia Toolkit for characterizing HPC applications. The Sequoia Toolkit consists of the Sequoia trace capture library and the Sequoia Event Analysis Library, or SEAL, that facilitates the development of tools for analyzing Sequoia event traces. Using the Sequoia Toolkit, we have characterized the behavior of application runs with up to 2048 application processes. To illustrate the use of the Sequoia Toolkit, we present a preliminary characterization of LAMMPS, a molecularmore » dynamics application of great interest to the computational biology community.« less

Active Collaborative Learning through Remote Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gehret, Austin U.; Elliot, Lisa B.; MacDonald, Jonathan H. C.

2017-01-01

An exploratory case study approach was used to describe remote tutoring in biochemistry and general chemistry with students who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). Data collected for analysis were based on the observations of the participant tutor. The research questions guiding this study included (1) How is active learning accomplished in…

Plug-In Tutor Agents: Still Pluggin'

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritter, Steven

2016-01-01

"An Architecture for Plug-in Tutor Agents" (Ritter and Koedinger 1996) proposed a software architecture designed around the idea that tutors could be built as plug-ins for existing software applications. Looking back on the paper now, we can see that certain assumptions about the future of software architecture did not come to be, making…

Long-Term Stability of Tutor Performance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dolmans, Diana H. J. M.; And Others

1996-01-01

Examined the extent to which tutor ratings remained stable in the long term by evaluating 291 ratings of 140 tutors at Maastricht University in the Netherlands between 1992 and 1995. The results indicated that, if the aggregated score and overall judgement are used to interpret the precision of individual scores, four and two occasions,…

Observing tutorial dialogues collaboratively: insights about human tutoring effectiveness from vicarious learning.

PubMed

Chi, Michelene T H; Roy, Marguerite; Hausmann, Robert G M

2008-03-01

The goals of this study are to evaluate a relatively novel learning environment, as well as to seek greater understanding of why human tutoring is so effective. This alternative learning environment consists of pairs of students collaboratively observing a videotape of another student being tutored. Comparing this collaboratively observing environment to four other instructional methods-one-on-one human tutoring, observing tutoring individually, collaborating without observing, and studying alone-the results showed that students learned to solve physics problems just as effectively from observing tutoring collaboratively as the tutees who were being tutored individually. We explain the effectiveness of this learning environment by postulating that such a situation encourages learners to become active and constructive observers through interactions with a peer. In essence, collaboratively observing combines the benefit of tutoring with the benefit of collaborating. The learning outcomes of the tutees and the collaborative observers, along with the tutoring dialogues, were used to further evaluate three hypotheses explaining why human tutoring is an effective learning method. Detailed analyses of the protocols at several grain sizes suggest that tutoring is effective when tutees are independently or jointly constructing knowledge: with the tutor, but not when the tutor independently conveys knowledge. 2008 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

The near-peer tutoring programme: embracing the ‘doctors-to-teach’ philosophy – a comparison of the effects of participation between the senior and junior near-peer tutors

PubMed Central

Liew, Siaw-Cheok; Sow, Chew-Fei; Sidhu, Jagmohni; Nadarajah, Vishna Devi

2015-01-01

Background While there is an increasing pool of literature documenting the benefits of near-peer tutoring programme, little is known about the benefits for junior and senior peer tutors. Knowledge of the peer tutors’ perceived benefits at different levels of seniority will aid in the development of a near-peer tutoring programme that will better fulfil both curricula and personal aspirations of near-peer tutors. We, therefore, investigated the perceived benefits of participation in a near-peer tutoring programme for junior as well as senior near-peer tutors. Methods Pre- and post-participation questionnaires were distributed to near-peer tutors after their clinical skills teaching sessions with Phase I undergraduate medical students. The Peer Tutor Assessment Instrument questionnaires were distributed to the 1) students, and to the 2) near-peer tutors (junior and senior) after each teaching and learning session for self-evaluation. Results The senior near-peer tutors felt that their participation in the programme had enhanced their skills (p=0.03). As a whole, the near-peer tutors were more motivated (Pre 5.32±0.46; Post 5.47±0.50; p=0.210) to participate in future teaching sessions but did not expect that having teaching experiences would make teaching as their major career path in the future (Pre 4.63±1.07; Post 4.54±0.98; p=0.701). The senior near-peer tutors were evaluated significantly higher by the students (p=0.0001). Students’ evaluations of near-peer tutors on the domain of critical analysis was higher than self-evaluations (p=0.003). Conclusions Generally, the near-peer tutors perceived that they have benefited most in their skills enhancement and these near-peer tutors were scored highly by the students. However, senior near-peer tutors do not perceive that the programme has a lasting impact on their choice of career path. PMID:26356229

Transportation librarian's toolkit

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2007-12-01

The Transportation Librarians Toolkit is a product of the Transportation Library Connectivity pooled fund study, TPF- 5(105), a collaborative, grass-roots effort by transportation libraries to enhance information accessibility and professional expert...

Bridge: Intelligent Tutoring with Intermediate Representations

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-05-01

Research and Development Center and Psychology Department University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA. 15260 The Artificial Intelligence and Psychology...problem never introduces more than one unfamiliar plan. Inteligent Tutoring With Intermediate Representations - Bonar and Cunniigbam 4 You must have a... Inteligent Tutoring With ntermediate Representations - Bonar and Cunningham 7 The requirements are specified at four differcnt levels, corresponding to

Student Perceptions of Online Tutoring Videos

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sligar, Steven R.; Pelletier, Christopher D.; Bonner, Heidi Stone; Coghill, Elizabeth; Guberman, Daniel; Zeng, Xiaoming; Newman, Joyce J.; Muller, Dorothy; Dennis, Allen

2017-01-01

Online tutoring is made possible by using videos to replace or supplement face to face services. The purpose of this research was to examine student reactions to the use of lecture capture technology in a university tutoring setting and to assess student knowledge of some features of Tegrity lecture capture software. A survey was administered to…

Literacy Toolkit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center for Best Practices in Early Childhood Education, 2005

2005-01-01

The toolkit contains print and electronic resources, including (1) "eMERGing Literacy and Technology: Working Together", A 492 page curriculum guide; (2) "LitTECH Interactive Presents: The Beginning of Literacy", a DVD that provides and overview linking technology to the concepts of emerging literacy; (3) "Your Preschool Classroom Computer Center:…

FUDAOWANG: A Web-Based Intelligent Tutoring System Implementing Advanced Education Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Wei; Zhao, Ke; Li, Yatao; Yi, Zhenzhen

2012-01-01

Determining how to provide good tutoring functions is an important research direction of intelligent tutoring systems. In this study, the authors develop an intelligent tutoring system with good tutoring functions, called "FUDAOWANG." The research domain that FUDAOWANG treats is junior middle school mathematics, which belongs to the objective…

Developmental Process Model for the Java Intelligent Tutoring System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sykes, Edward

2007-01-01

The Java Intelligent Tutoring System (JITS) was designed and developed to support the growing trend of Java programming around the world. JITS is an advanced web-based personalized tutoring system that is unique in several ways. Most programming Intelligent Tutoring Systems require the teacher to author problems with corresponding solutions. JITS,…

Effects of Role and Assignment Rationale on Attitudes Formed During Peer Tutoring.

PubMed

Bierman, Karen Linn; Furman, Wyndol

1981-02-01

This study examined the role of contextual factors, such as assignment rationale, on the attitudinal effects of peer tutoring. Fourth-grade children engaged in brief tutoring experiences as either a tutor or tutee. Subjects received four rationales for being selected as tutor or tutee: (a) a competence rationale, (b) a physical characteristic rationale, (c) a chance rationale, or (d) no rationale. As predicted, tutors had more positive attitudes than tutees when they had been given a competence or physical characteristic rationale but not when the tutors were provided a chance rationale or no rationale. Additionally, the tutors' and tutees' attitudes were enhanced when no rationale was provided. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for a role-theory analysis of tutoring and their implications for applied programs.

Evaluation of an Intelligent Tutoring System in Pathology: Effects of External Representation on Performance Gains, Metacognition, and Acceptance

PubMed Central

Crowley, Rebecca S.; Legowski, Elizabeth; Medvedeva, Olga; Tseytlin, Eugene; Roh, Ellen; Jukic, Drazen

2007-01-01

Objective Determine effects of computer-based tutoring on diagnostic performance gains, meta-cognition, and acceptance using two different problem representations. Describe impact of tutoring on spectrum of diagnostic skills required for task performance. Identify key features of student-tutor interaction contributing to learning gains. Design Prospective, between-subjects study, controlled for participant level of training. Resident physicians in two academic pathology programs spent four hours using one of two interfaces which differed mainly in external problem representation. The case-focused representation provided an open-learning environment in which students were free to explore evidence-hypothesis relationships within a case, but could not visualize the entire diagnostic space. The knowledge-focused representation provided an interactive representation of the entire diagnostic space, which more tightly constrained student actions. Measurements Metrics included results of pretest, post-test and retention-test for multiple choice and case diagnosis tests, ratios of performance to student reported certainty, results of participant survey, learning curves, and interaction behaviors during tutoring. Results Students had highly significant learning gains after one tutoring session. Learning was retained at one week. There were no differences between the two interfaces in learning gains on post-test or retention test. Only students in the knowledge-focused interface exhibited significant metacognitive gains from pretest to post-test and pretest to retention test. Students rated the knowledge-focused interface significantly higher than the case-focused interface. Conclusions Cognitive tutoring is associated with improved diagnostic performance in a complex medical domain. The effect is retained at one-week post-training. Knowledge-focused external problem representation shows an advantage over case-focused representation for metacognitive effects and user

Evaluation of an intelligent tutoring system in pathology: effects of external representation on performance gains, metacognition, and acceptance.

PubMed

Crowley, Rebecca S; Legowski, Elizabeth; Medvedeva, Olga; Tseytlin, Eugene; Roh, Ellen; Jukic, Drazen

2007-01-01

Determine effects of computer-based tutoring on diagnostic performance gains, meta-cognition, and acceptance using two different problem representations. Describe impact of tutoring on spectrum of diagnostic skills required for task performance. Identify key features of student-tutor interaction contributing to learning gains. Prospective, between-subjects study, controlled for participant level of training. Resident physicians in two academic pathology programs spent four hours using one of two interfaces which differed mainly in external problem representation. The case-focused representation provided an open-learning environment in which students were free to explore evidence-hypothesis relationships within a case, but could not visualize the entire diagnostic space. The knowledge-focused representation provided an interactive representation of the entire diagnostic space, which more tightly constrained student actions. Metrics included results of pretest, post-test and retention-test for multiple choice and case diagnosis tests, ratios of performance to student reported certainty, results of participant survey, learning curves, and interaction behaviors during tutoring. Students had highly significant learning gains after one tutoring session. Learning was retained at one week. There were no differences between the two interfaces in learning gains on post-test or retention test. Only students in the knowledge-focused interface exhibited significant metacognitive gains from pretest to post-test and pretest to retention test. Students rated the knowledge-focused interface significantly higher than the case-focused interface. Cognitive tutoring is associated with improved diagnostic performance in a complex medical domain. The effect is retained at one-week post-training. Knowledge-focused external problem representation shows an advantage over case-focused representation for metacognitive effects and user acceptance.

Open Drug Discovery Toolkit (ODDT): a new open-source player in the drug discovery field.

PubMed

Wójcikowski, Maciej; Zielenkiewicz, Piotr; Siedlecki, Pawel

2015-01-01

There has been huge progress in the open cheminformatics field in both methods and software development. Unfortunately, there has been little effort to unite those methods and software into one package. We here describe the Open Drug Discovery Toolkit (ODDT), which aims to fulfill the need for comprehensive and open source drug discovery software. The Open Drug Discovery Toolkit was developed as a free and open source tool for both computer aided drug discovery (CADD) developers and researchers. ODDT reimplements many state-of-the-art methods, such as machine learning scoring functions (RF-Score and NNScore) and wraps other external software to ease the process of developing CADD pipelines. ODDT is an out-of-the-box solution designed to be easily customizable and extensible. Therefore, users are strongly encouraged to extend it and develop new methods. We here present three use cases for ODDT in common tasks in computer-aided drug discovery. Open Drug Discovery Toolkit is released on a permissive 3-clause BSD license for both academic and industrial use. ODDT's source code, additional examples and documentation are available on GitHub (https://github.com/oddt/oddt).

Raising Spelling Scores through Peer Tutoring and Cooperative Groups.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fowler, Elaine D.

Two techniques can be used to improve spelling scores and make spelling more interesting. The first technique is a combination of peer tutoring and the corrected-test technique. Students are paired as tutors and tutees on the basis of past spelling performance. The tutor gives a series of bi-weekly spelling tests to the tutee and helps with error…

Passively Classifying Student Mood and Performance within Intelligent Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sottilare, Robert A.; Proctor, Michael

2012-01-01

It has been long recognized that successful human tutors are capable of adapting instruction to mitigate barriers (e.g., withdrawal or frustration) to learning during the one-to-one tutoring process. A significant part of the success of human tutors is based on their perception of student affect (e.g., mood or emotions). To at least match the…

Could Intelligent Tutors Anticipate Successfully User Reactions?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalisz, Eugenia; Florea, Adina Magda

2006-06-01

Emotions have been shown to have an important impact on several human processes such as decision-making, planning, cognition, and learning. In an e-learning system, an artificial tutor capable of effectively understanding and anticipating the student emotions during learning will have a significantly enhanced role. The paper presents a model of an artificial tutor endowed with synthesized emotions according to the BDE model, previously developed by the authors. It also analyzes possible student reactions while interacting with the learning material and the way the artificial tutor could anticipate and should respond to these reactions, with adequate actions.

The Ames MER microscopic imager toolkit

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sargent, R.; Deans, Matthew; Kunz, C.; Sims, M.; Herkenhoff, K.

2005-01-01

12The Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have spent several successful months on Mars, returning gigabytes of images and spectral data to scientists on Earth. One of the instruments on the MER rovers, the Athena Microscopic Imager (MI), is a fixed focus, megapixel camera providing a ??3mm depth of field and a 31??31mm field of view at a working distance of 63 mm from the lens to the object being imaged. In order to maximize the science return from this instrument, we developed the Ames MI Toolkit and supported its use during the primary mission. The MI Toolkit is a set of programs that operate on collections of MI images, with the goal of making the data more understandable to the scientists on the ground. Because of the limited depth of field of the camera, and the often highly variable topography of the terrain being imaged, MI images of a given rock are often taken as a stack, with the Instrument Deployment Device (IDD) moving along a computed normal vector, pausing every few millimeters for the MI to acquire an image. The MI Toolkit provides image registration and focal section merging, which combine these images to form a single, maximally in-focus image, while compensating for changes in lighting as well as parallax due to the motion of the camera. The MI Toolkit also provides a 3-D reconstruction of the surface being imaged using stereo and can embed 2-D MI images as texture maps into 3-D meshes produced by other imagers on board the rover to provide context. The 2-D images and 3-D meshes output from the Toolkit are easily viewed by scientists using other mission tools, such as Viz or the MI Browser.This paper describes the MI Toolkit in detail, as well as our experience using it with scientists at JPL during the primary MER mission. ?? 2005 IEEE.

The Ames MER Microscopic Imager Toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sargent, Randy; Deans, Matthew; Kunz, Clayton; Sims, Michael; Herkenhoff, Ken

2005-01-01

The Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have spent several successful months on Mars, returning gigabytes of images and spectral data to scientists on Earth. One of the instruments on the MER rovers, the Athena Microscopic Imager (MI), is a fixed focus, megapixel camera providing a plus or minus mm depth of field and a 3lx31mm field of view at a working distance of 63 mm from the lens to the object being imaged. In order to maximize the science return from this instrument, we developed the Ames MI Toolkit and supported its use during the primary mission. The MI Toolkit is a set of programs that operate on collections of MI images, with the goal of making the data more understandable to the scientists on the ground. Because of the limited depth of field of the camera, and the often highly variable topography of the terrain being imaged, MI images of a given rock are often taken as a stack, with the Instrument Deployment Device (IDD) moving along a computed normal vector, pausing every few millimeters for the MI to acquire an image. The MI Toolkit provides image registration and focal section merging, which combine these images to form a single, maximally in-focus image, while compensating for changes in lighting as well as parallax due to the motion of the camera. The MI Toolkit also provides a 3-D reconstruction of the surface being imaged using stereo and can embed 2-D MI images as texture maps into 3-D meshes produced by other imagers on board the rover to provide context. The 2-D images and 3-D meshes output from the Toolkit are easily viewed by scientists using other mission tools, such as Viz or the MI Browser. This paper describes the MI Toolkit in detail, as well as our experience using it with scientists at JPL during the primary MER mission.

Tutor-Assisted Intensive Learning Strategies in Kindergarten: How Much Is Enough?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Otaiba, Stephanie Al; Schatschneider, Christopher; Silverman, Eden

2005-01-01

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of a tutoring intervention provided by community tutors to kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties. The 73 students were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) tutoring 4 days a week, (b) tutoring 2 days a week, or (c) a control condition that provided…

Note-Taking within MetaTutor: Interactions between an Intelligent Tutoring System and Prior Knowledge on Note-Taking and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trevors, Gregory; Duffy, Melissa; Azevedo, Roger

2014-01-01

Hypermedia learning environments (HLE) unevenly present new challenges and opportunities to learning processes and outcomes depending on learner characteristics and instructional supports. In this experimental study, we examined how one such HLE--MetaTutor, an intelligent, multi-agent tutoring system designed to scaffold cognitive and…

Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) Toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Venkatesh, Meera; Kapadia, Ravi; Walker, Mark; Wilkins, Kim

2013-01-01

A framework of software components has been implemented to facilitate the development of ISHM systems according to a methodology based on Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). This framework is collectively referred to as the Toolkit and was developed using General Atomics' Health MAP (TM) technology. The toolkit is intended to provide assistance to software developers of mission-critical system health monitoring applications in the specification, implementation, configuration, and deployment of such applications. In addition to software tools designed to facilitate these objectives, the toolkit also provides direction to software developers in accordance with an ISHM specification and development methodology. The development tools are based on an RCM approach for the development of ISHM systems. This approach focuses on defining, detecting, and predicting the likelihood of system functional failures and their undesirable consequences.

Difficult incidents and tutor interventions in problem-based learning tutorials.

PubMed

Kindler, Pawel; Grant, Christopher; Kulla, Steven; Poole, Gary; Godolphin, William

2009-09-01

Tutors report difficult incidents and distressing conflicts that adversely affect learning in their problem-based learning (PBL) groups. Faculty development (training) and peer support should help them to manage this. Yet our understanding of these problems and how to deal with them often seems inadequate to help tutors. The aim of this study was to categorise difficult incidents and the interventions that skilled tutors used in response, and to determine the effectiveness of those responses. Thirty experienced and highly rated tutors in our Year 1 and 2 medical curriculum took part in semi-structured interviews to: identify and describe difficult incidents; describe how they responded, and assess the success of each response. Recorded and transcribed data were analysed thematically to develop typologies of difficult incidents and interventions and compare reported success or failure. The 94 reported difficult incidents belonged to the broad categories 'individual student' or 'group dynamics'. Tutors described 142 interventions in response to these difficult incidents, categorised as: (i) tutor intervenes during tutorial; (ii) tutor gives feedback outside tutorial, or (iii) student or group intervenes. Incidents in the 'individual student' category were addressed relatively unsuccessfully (effective < 50% of the time) by response (i), but with moderate success by response (ii) and successfully (> 75% of the time) by response (iii). None of the interventions worked well when used in response to problems related to 'group dynamics'. Overall, 59% of the difficult incidents were dealt with successfully. Dysfunctional PBL groups can be highly challenging, even for experienced and skilled tutors. Within-tutorial feedback, the treatment that tutors are most frequently advised to apply, was often not effective. Our study suggests that the collective responsibility of the group, rather than of the tutor, to deal with these difficulties should be emphasised.

Peer tutoring programs in health professions schools.

PubMed

Santee, Jennifer; Garavalia, Linda

2006-06-15

Peer tutoring programs may be one method of maintaining quality of pharmacy education in the face of growing student enrollment and a small faculty body. A critical review of the literature was performed to ascertain whether peer tutoring programs improve or maintain the academic performance of health care professional students. Various electronic databases and abstracts from past American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's annual meetings were searched to identify pertinent research. Only those articles with quantitative data, an experimental design, and comparative statistical analysis were included for review. Most studies found that peer tutoring had a positive impact on academic performance. These results may not be readily generalizable as there were numerous methodological flaws and limited descriptions of the programs and participants. Studies with better designs and more detail are needed to answer definitively whether peer tutoring is of benefit. Details of what resources were required should be included in the study to allow the reader to determine the feasibility of the intervention.

The effect of attending tutoring on course grades in Calculus I

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rickard, Brian; Mills, Melissa

2018-04-01

Tutoring centres are common in universities in the United States, but there are few published studies that statistically examine the effects of tutoring on student success. This study utilizes multiple regression analysis to model the effect of tutoring attendance on final course grades in Calculus I. Our model predicted that every three visits to the tutoring centre is correlated with an increase of a students' course grade by one per cent, after controlling for prior academic ability. We also found that for lower-achieving students, attending tutoring had a greater impact on final grades.

phylo-node: A molecular phylogenetic toolkit using Node.js.

PubMed

O'Halloran, Damien M

2017-01-01

Node.js is an open-source and cross-platform environment that provides a JavaScript codebase for back-end server-side applications. JavaScript has been used to develop very fast and user-friendly front-end tools for bioinformatic and phylogenetic analyses. However, no such toolkits are available using Node.js to conduct comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analysis. To address this problem, I have developed, phylo-node, which was developed using Node.js and provides a stable and scalable toolkit that allows the user to perform diverse molecular and phylogenetic tasks. phylo-node can execute the analysis and process the resulting outputs from a suite of software options that provides tools for read processing and genome alignment, sequence retrieval, multiple sequence alignment, primer design, evolutionary modeling, and phylogeny reconstruction. Furthermore, phylo-node enables the user to deploy server dependent applications, and also provides simple integration and interoperation with other Node modules and languages using Node inheritance patterns, and a customized piping module to support the production of diverse pipelines. phylo-node is open-source and freely available to all users without sign-up or login requirements. All source code and user guidelines are openly available at the GitHub repository: https://github.com/dohalloran/phylo-node.

Learning partnership--the experience of peer tutoring among nursing students: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Loke, Alice J T Yuen; Chow, Filomena L W

2007-02-01

Peer tutoring involves students helping each other to learn. It places teaching and learning commitments and responsibilities on students. Considerable evidence supports the positive effects of peer tutoring, including cognitive gains, improved communication, self-confidence, and social support among students. Peer tutors are also said to better understand the learning problems of fellow peer learners than teachers do. This study intended to facilitate the development of 'cooperative learning' among nursing students through a peer-tutoring scheme. Undergraduate nursing students were invited to join a peer-tutoring scheme. Fourteen students studying year 3 were recruited to serve as peer tutors and 16 students from year 2 of the same program participated as tutees. Peer tutors attended a training workshop and received a guideline for peer-tutoring activities. They were to provide a total of '10 weekly tutoring sessions throughout the semester on a one-to-one basis for their tutees. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted in the middle and at the end of the semester to evaluate the students' experiences in the tutoring process. Content analysis of the interview scripts identified that students had both positive and negative experiences from the peer tutoring, but that positive experiences predominated. Positive aspects included enhancement of learning skills/intellectual gains and personal growth. Negative experiences stemmed mainly from frustrations in dealing with mismatched learning styles between tutors and tutees, and the required time commitment. Both tutors and tutees benefited to some extent from this peer-tutoring process. Further studies in an education program for students in all years should be implemented to examine peer-tutoring effects. Implementation of peer tutoring should address the frustrations and difficulties encountered by the students to facilitate better outcomes.

What makes a successful volunteer Expert Patients Programme tutor? Factors predicting satisfaction, productivity and intention to continue tutoring of a new public health workforce in the United Kingdom.

PubMed

Macdonald, Wendy; Kontopantelis, Evangelos; Bower, Peter; Kennedy, Anne; Rogers, Anne; Reeves, David

2009-04-01

Better management of chronic conditions is a challenge for public health policy. The Expert Patients Programme was introduced into the United Kingdom to improve self-care in people with long-term conditions. To deliver self-care courses, the programme relies on the recruitment and continued commitment to delivering the courses of volunteer lay tutors who have long-term conditions. Ensuring the tutor workforce is productive, satisfied in their role and retained long-term is central to the viability of the programme. This exploratory study aimed to determine what factors predict productivity, intention to continue tutoring, and satisfaction in a sample of volunteer tutors from the Expert Patients Programme. A cross-sectional survey of 895 tutors was carried out and 518 (58%) responded. The questionnaire was designed to describe the characteristics, productivity, intention to continue tutoring, and satisfaction of tutors. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the determinants of productivity, intention to continue tutoring, and satisfaction, such as patient demographics, attitudes, physical and mental health, mastery and self-esteem. Attitudes relating to personal goals, and better health were significant predictors of satisfaction with the tutor role. Only a small proportion of the variance in productivity was accounted for, and tutors were more likely to be productive when they were single, homeowners, car owners, and had lower scores on the depression scale. Overall satisfaction and personal goals were predictors of intention to continue tutoring. Demographic factors, health measures and attitudes each predicted different aspects of the experience of work conducted by the volunteer tutors. The results should prove useful for planning interventions to enhance the success of this new workforce initiative. Attempts to increase participation in courses by people from deprived backgrounds are likely to be enhanced if tutors come from similar

A Hypermedia Computer-Aided Parasitology Tutoring System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theodoropoulos, Georgios; Loumos, Vassili

A hypermedia tutoring system for teaching parasitology to college students was developed using an object oriented software development tool, Knowledge Pro. The program was designed to meet four objectives: knowledge incorporation, tutoring, indexing of key words for Boolean search, and random generation of quiz questions with instant scoring. The…

OFMTutor: An operator function model intelligent tutoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Patricia M.

1989-01-01

The design, implementation, and evaluation of an Operator Function Model intelligent tutoring system (OFMTutor) is presented. OFMTutor is intended to provide intelligent tutoring in the context of complex dynamic systems for which an operator function model (OFM) can be constructed. The human operator's role in such complex, dynamic, and highly automated systems is that of a supervisory controller whose primary responsibilities are routine monitoring and fine-tuning of system parameters and occasional compensation for system abnormalities. The automated systems must support the human operator. One potentially useful form of support is the use of intelligent tutoring systems to teach the operator about the system and how to function within that system. Previous research on intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) is considered. The proposed design for OFMTutor is presented, and an experimental evaluation is described.

More than Good Intentioned Help: Volunteer Tutoring and Elementary Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jung, Eunjoo; Molfese, Victoria J.; Larson, Ann E.

2011-01-01

In this study, researchers examined whether tutoring implemented by volunteer tutors impacted struggling elementary readers' reading skills, their attitudes toward reading, and their self-confidence. The study involved two elementary schools and 30 students who were participating in the community based tutoring program and who were randomly…

An Industrial Physics Toolkit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cummings, Bill

2004-03-01

Physicists possess many skills highly valued in industrial companies. However, with the exception of a decreasing number of positions in long range research at large companies, job openings in industry rarely say "Physicist Required." One key to a successful industrial career is to know what subset of your physics skills is most highly valued by a given industry and to continue to build these skills while working. This combination of skills from both academic and industrial experience becomes your "Industrial Physics Toolkit" and is a transferable resource when you change positions or companies. This presentation will describe how one builds and sells your own "Industrial Physics Toolkit" using concrete examples from the speaker's industrial experience.

The student tutor experience in a problem-based learning course: A case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, Tricia Susan

This case study, conducted from an interpretive paradigm, illuminates contextual factors related to the tutor experience when senior undergraduate dental hygiene students served as tutors for beginning undergraduate dental hygiene students, or sophomores, in a 1-semester, 2-hour long problem-based learning (PBL) course in a Baccalaureate Dental Hygiene (BDH) curriculum during the spring semester of 2008. Data were collected using various sources and methods. Six tutors and three administrators were interviewed, tutees completed an anonymous questionnaire, the tutorial process and tutor training sessions were observed, and related documents were examined. Data analysis included open and axial coding, creation of tutor profiles, and identification of patterns. Tutor behaviors varied with respect to the nature of intervention (e.g., telling, asking, clarifying, acknowledging), emphasis (process, content, social), and facilitation style (directive, suggestive, empowering). Patterns in tutor behavior and attitudes emerged related to comfort and growth, persistence and lenience, and compliance, resistance, and innovation. Differences in tutor understanding and perception of their role and the purpose of PBL influenced the role the tutor assumed. Other factors that influenced tutor behavior included tutor intentions, tutor training, and environmental factors such as the nature of problems, allotted time, and tutorial group characteristics. The influence of these factors can be understood by applying Fishbein's integrated model of behavior prediction (Fishbein, 2008). Tutor training included experiencing the PBL student role, attending class, and sharing experiences with other tutors in weekly seminar sessions facilitated by a tutor supervisor. Tutor's gained confidence, knowledge, skills, and friendship. They also had the opportunity to see things from a new perspective, that of a teacher encouraging self-direction rather than a student depending on others for direction

Designing and Evaluating Tutoring Feedback Strategies for Digital Learning Environments on the Basis of the Interactive Tutoring Feedback Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narciss, Susanne

2013-01-01

This paper describes the interactive tutoring feedback model (ITF-model; Narciss, 2006; 2008), and how it can be applied to the design and evaluation of feedback strategies for digital learning environments. The ITF-model conceptualizes formative tutoring feedback as a multidimensional instructional activity that aims at contributing to the…

Implementing CBM: SQL-Tutor after Fifteen Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitrovic, Antonija; Ohlsson, Stellan

2016-01-01

SQL-Tutor is the first constraint-based tutor. The initial conference papers about the system were published in 1998 (Mitrovic 1998a, 1998b, 1998c), with an "IJAIED" paper published in 1999 (Mitrovic and Ohlsson, "International Journal Artificial Intelligence in Education," 10(3-4), 238-256, 1999). We published another…

Evidence to Support Peer Tutoring Programs at the Undergraduate Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colver, Mitchell; Fry, Trevor

2016-01-01

The present study examined undergraduate peer tutoring in three phases. Phase I qualitatively surveyed students' perceptions about the effectiveness of tutoring. Phase II examined the usefulness of promoting regular use of services through a tutoring contract. Phase III utilized an archival, quasi-experimental approach to estimate the effect of…

Remediating Physics Misconceptions Using an Analogy-Based Computer Tutor. Draft.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Tom; And Others

Described is a computer tutor designed to help students gain a qualitative understanding of important physics concepts. The tutor simulates a teaching strategy called "bridging analogies" that previous research has demonstrated to be successful in one-on-one tutoring and written explanation studies. The strategy is designed to remedy…

Toolkit of Available EPA Green Infrastructure Modeling ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This webinar will present a toolkit consisting of five EPA green infrastructure models and tools, along with communication material. This toolkit can be used as a teaching and quick reference resource for use by planners and developers when making green infrastructure implementation decisions. It can also be used for low impact development design competitions. Models and tools included: Green Infrastructure Wizard (GIWiz), Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST), Visualizing Ecosystem Land Management Assessments (VELMA) Model, Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), and the National Stormwater Calculator (SWC). This webinar will present a toolkit consisting of five EPA green infrastructure models and tools, along with communication material. This toolkit can be used as a teaching and quick reference resource for use by planners and developers when making green infrastructure implementation decisions. It can also be used for low impact development design competitions. Models and tools included: Green Infrastructure Wizard (GIWiz), Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST), Visualizing Ecosystem Land Management Assessments (VELMA) Model, Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), and the National Stormwater Calculator (SWC).

Effects of Role and Assignment Rationale on Attitudes Formed During Peer Tutoring

PubMed Central

Bierman, Karen Linn; Furman, Wyndol

2012-01-01

This study examined the role of contextual factors, such as assignment rationale, on the attitudinal effects of peer tutoring. Fourth-grade children engaged in brief tutoring experiences as either a tutor or tutee. Subjects received four rationales for being selected as tutor or tutee: (a) a competence rationale, (b) a physical characteristic rationale, (c) a chance rationale, or (d) no rationale. As predicted, tutors had more positive attitudes than tutees when they had been given a competence or physical characteristic rationale but not when the tutors were provided a chance rationale or no rationale. Additionally, the tutors’ and tutees’ attitudes were enhanced when no rationale was provided. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for a role-theory analysis of tutoring and their implications for applied programs. PMID:23946549

At the Bridging Point: Tutoring Newly Arrived Students in Sweden

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Avery, Helen

2017-01-01

In Sweden, tutoring in the mother tongue is a special support measure primarily intended for newly arrived students to facilitate their transition into the Swedish school system. Tutoring is premised on the collaboration between the class teacher, responsible for subject-related expertise, and the tutor, who contributes with knowledge of the…

An Analogy-Based Computer Tutor for Remediating Physics Misconceptions. Draft.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Tom; And Others

This paper evaluates the strengths and limitations of a computer tutor designed to help students understand physics concepts. The tutor uses a teaching strategy called "bridging analogies" that previous research has demonstrated to be successful in one-to-one tutoring. The strategy is designed to remedy misconceptions by appealing to existing…

Does Private Tutoring Increase Students' Academic Performance? Evidence from Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berberoglu, Giray; Tansel, Aysit

2014-01-01

This paper investigates the effectiveness of private tutoring in Turkey. The authors introduce their study by providing some background information on the two major national examinations and three different kinds of tutoring. They then describe how they aimed to analyse whether attending private tutoring centres (PTCs) enhances Turkish students'…

Concentrating on Affective Feedforward in Online Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Ya-Ting; Chou, Yung-Hsin; Cowan, John

2014-01-01

With considerable input from the student voice, the paper centres on a detailed account of the experiences of Western academic, tutoring Eastern students online to develop their critical thinking skills. From their online experiences together as tutor and students, the writers present a considered case for the main emphasis in facilitative online…

Role of clinical tutors in volunteering work camps.

PubMed

Alloni, Rossana; D'Elia, Annunziata; Navajas, Francisca; De Gara, Laura

2014-04-01

The Università Campus Bio-Medico (Italy) promotes a summer volunteering work camp (Workcamp Perù) as a social activity for medical and non-medical students. Some junior doctors participate as 'clinical tutors', together with tutors from other professions; all clinical tutors have some teaching experience in our teaching hospital. The campsite is located in the South of Peru in the Cañete Valley, an area characterised by extreme poverty and a severe lack of infrastructure. During the five Workcamp Perù trips that have been organised so far, health science students have carried out many activities for disease prevention and health education, and bio-medical engineering students have organised sessions on the safety of electrical installations, for accident prevention. We observed that in this setting tutorial activity is fundamental, because it not only offers students an opportunity to learn but also encourages them to react in a more personal and reflective manner to various stressful situations, which often occur in the work camp. The professional competence of the tutor plays an important role before the work camp, in defining the learning objectives for the students and involving them in training sessions held prior to the work camp. Also, during the camp, tutors work with students and also direct the daily briefing and debriefing sessions that are the most important learning activity. For medical tutors involved in the work camp the volunteering experience is a challenge for developing their specific professional and teaching skills, but it also provides an enriching experience in both professional and personal terms. We consider these work camps to be a useful experience in the training of our clinical tutors. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Lecturing skills as predictors of tutoring skills in a problem-based medical curriculum.

PubMed

Kassab, Salah Eldin; Hassan, Nahla; Abu-Hijleh, Marwan F; Sequeira, Reginald P

2016-01-01

Recruitment of tutors to work in problem-based learning (PBL) programs is challenging, especially in that most of them are graduated from discipline-based programs. Therefore, this study aims at examining whether lecturing skills of faculty could predict their PBL tutoring skills. This study included evaluation of faculty (n=69) who participated in both tutoring and lecturing within particular PBL units at the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences (CMMS), Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain. Each faculty was evaluated by medical students (n=45±8 for lecturing and 8±2 for PBL tutoring) using structured evaluation forms based on a Likert-type scale (poor to excellent). The prediction of tutoring skills using lecturing skills was statistically analyzed using stepwise linear regression. Among the parameters used to judge lecturing skills, the most important predictor for tutoring skills was subject matter mastery in the lecture by explaining difficult concepts and responding effectively to students' questions. Subject matter mastery in the lecture positively predicted five tutoring skills and accounted for 25% of the variance in overall effectiveness of the PBL tutors (F=22.39, P=0.000). Other important predictors for tutoring skills were providing a relaxed class atmosphere and effective use of audiovisual aids in the lecture. Predicting the tutoring skills based on lecturing skills could have implications for recruiting tutors in PBL medical programs and for tutor training initiatives.

The relationship between professional behaviour grades and tutor performance ratings in problem-based learning.

PubMed

Dolmans, Diana Hjm; Luijk, Scheltus J; Wolfhagen, Ineke Hap; Scherpbier, Albert Jja

2006-02-01

We investigated the influence of harsh grading by tutors on tutor performance rating by students. A total of 187 tutors assessed students' professional behaviour in tutorial groups. Students rated tutor performance after receiving their grades for professional behaviour. In addition, students were asked to indicate whether they perceived their professional behaviour grades as too positive, adequate or too negative. This was considered to reflect tutors' harshness of grading. Students also rated the quality of the feedback they received from tutors with respect to their grades. Professional behaviour grades that students perceived as too negative, adequate or too positive were associated with tutor performance ratings of 7.4 (SD = 0.9, scale 1-10, n = 33), 7.7 (SD = 0.9, scale 1-10, n = 95) and 7.5 (SD = 0.8, scale 1-10, n = 59), respectively. Harshness of grading did not influence tutor performance ratings significantly. Tutor ratings were predicted more effectively by the quality of the feedback tutors provided on grades than by the harshness of grading. Tutor performance ratings were not related significantly to harshness of grading. Two explanations can be given: (1) tutor performance ratings were based on rating by groups of students and (2) the percentage of tutors who rated students' professional behaviour as unsatisfactory was low. The strong relationship between tutor performance ratings and the adequacy of the feedback given by tutors suggests that the tutor performance ratings collected in this study are a valid measure of the quality of their teaching, although, for a full picture of teaching quality, more measures will be needed.

Evaluation of the 1979-80 Title-I Migrant Tutoring Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rincon, Ramon; Zepeda, R. A.

Using Spanish and/or English according to each student's need, the Migrant Tutoring Program (MTP) provided 20 minutes of tutoring daily in oral language development, language arts, and reading to 238 migrant students (K-6) in 17 schools during the year. Questionnaires designed for principals, teachers, and tutors were used to obtain process…

Resources for Math and Reading Tutoring Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corporation for National Service, Washington, DC.

This updated and expanded resource on the mathematics and reading tutoring programs list of national service and Federal Work-Study tutoring programs includes publications, videos, and Web sites that have been developed by the Corporation for National Service or the U.S. Department of Education and their partners in support of work in literacy,…

Private Supplementary Tutoring in the Czech Republic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Štastný, Vít

2016-01-01

The study contributes to the literature on private supplementary tutoring by shedding light on this phenomenon in the Czech Republic. The aim of the paper is to identify the reasons for seeking out private supplementary tutoring and to assess the factors underlying its demand. In the representative sample of 1,265 senior upper-secondary school…

A Comparison of Peer and Tutor Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamer, John; Purchase, Helen; Luxton-Reilly, Andrew; Denny, Paul

2015-01-01

We report on a study comparing peer feedback with feedback written by tutors on a large, undergraduate software engineering programming class. Feedback generated by peers is generally held to be of lower quality to feedback from experienced tutors, and this study sought to explore the extent and nature of this difference. We looked at how…

Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Levine, Aaron L

Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit presentation from the WPTO FY14-FY16 Peer Review. The toolkit is aimed at regulatory agencies, consultants, project developers, the public, and any other party interested in learning more about the hydropower regulatory process.

77 FR 73023 - U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-07

... foreign end-users of environmental technologies that will outline U.S. approaches to a series of environmental problems and highlight participating U.S. vendors of relevant U.S. technologies. The Toolkit will... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit...

Increased Fos expression among midbrain dopaminergic cell groups during birdsong tutoring.

PubMed

Nordeen, E J; Holtzman, D A; Nordeen, K W

2009-08-01

During avian vocal learning, birds memorize conspecific song patterns and then use auditory feedback to match their vocal output to this acquired template. Some models of song learning posit that during tutoring, conspecific visual, social and/or auditory cues activate neuromodulatory systems that encourage acquisition of the tutor's song and attach incentive value to that specific acoustic pattern. This hypothesis predicts that stimuli experienced during social tutoring activate cell populations capable of signaling reward. Using immunocytochemistry for the protein product of the immediate early gene c-Fos, we found that brief exposure of juvenile male zebra finches to a live familiar male tutor increased the density of Fos+ cells within two brain regions implicated in reward processing: the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). This activation of Fos appears to involve both dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic VTA/SNc neurons. Intriguingly, a familiar tutor was more effective than a novel tutor in stimulating Fos expression within these regions. In the periaqueductal gray, a dopamine-enriched cell population that has been implicated in emotional processing, Fos labeling also was increased after tutoring, with a familiar tutor again being more effective than a novel conspecific. As several neural regions implicated in song acquisition receive strong dopaminergic projections from these midbrain nuclei, their activation in conjunction with hearing the tutor's song could help to establish sensory representations that later guide motor sequence learning.

The desktop interface in intelligent tutoring systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baudendistel, Stephen; Hua, Grace

1987-01-01

The interface between an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) and the person being tutored is critical to the success of the learning process. If the interface to the ITS is confusing or non-supportive of the tutored domain, the effectiveness of the instruction will be diminished or lost entirely. Consequently, the interface to an ITS should be highly integrated with the domain to provide a robust and semantically rich learning environment. In building an ITS for ZetaLISP on a LISP Machine, a Desktop Interface was designed to support a programming learning environment. Using the bitmapped display, windows, and mouse, three desktops were designed to support self-study and tutoring of ZetaLISP. Through organization, well-defined boundaries, and domain support facilities, the desktops provide substantial flexibility and power for the student and facilitate learning ZetaLISP programming while screening the student from the complex LISP Machine environment. The student can concentrate on learning ZetaLISP programming and not on how to operate the interface or a LISP Machine.

Peer Tutoring Programs in Health Professions Schools

PubMed Central

Garavalia, Linda

2006-01-01

Objective Peer tutoring programs may be one method of maintaining quality of pharmacy education in the face of growing student enrollment and a small faculty body. A critical review of the literature was performed to ascertain whether peer tutoring programs improve or maintain the academic performance of health care professional students. Methods Various electronic databases and abstracts from past American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's annual meetings were searched to identify pertinent research. Only those articles with quantitative data, an experimental design, and comparative statistical analysis were included for review. Results Most studies found that peer tutoring had a positive impact on academic performance. These results may not be readily generalizable as there were numerous methodological flaws and limited descriptions of the programs and participants. Implications Studies with better designs and more detail are needed to answer definitively whether peer tutoring is of benefit. Details of what resources were required should be included in the study to allow the reader to determine the feasibility of the intervention. PMID:17136190

A Toolkit to assess health needs for congenital disorders in low- and middle-income countries: an instrument for public health action.

PubMed

Nacul, L C; Stewart, A; Alberg, C; Chowdhury, S; Darlison, M W; Grollman, C; Hall, A; Modell, B; Moorthie, S; Sagoo, G S; Burton, H

2014-06-01

In 2010 the World Health Assembly called for action to improve the care and prevention of congenital disorders, noting that technical guidance would be required for this task, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Responding to this call, we have developed a freely available web-accessible Toolkit for assessing health needs for congenital disorders. Materials for the Toolkit website (http://toolkit.phgfoundation.org) were prepared by an iterative process of writing, discussion and modification by the project team, with advice from external experts. A customized database was developed using epidemiological, demographic, socio-economic and health-services data from a range of validated sources. Document-processing and data integration software combines data from the database with a template to generate topic- and country-specific Calculator documents for quantitative analysis. The Toolkit guides users through selection of topics (including both clinical conditions and relevant health services), assembly and evaluation of qualitative and quantitative information, assessment of the potential effects of selected interventions, and planning and prioritization of actions to reduce the risk or prevalence of congenital disorders. The Toolkit enables users without epidemiological or public health expertise to undertake health needs assessment as a prerequisite for strategic planning in relation to congenital disorders in their country or region. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health.

Effects of Fourth and Second Graders' Cross-Age Tutoring on Students' Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitchell, Rebekkah J.; Morrison, Timothy G.; Feinauer, Erika; Wilcox, Brad; Black, Sharon

2016-01-01

A quasi-experimental study examined some effects of cross-age tutoring on fourth grade tutors' and second grade tutees' ability to spell accurately and correct errors on their own rough drafts. Half of the participating tutors were trained in tutoring skills; half were not. All participants were given pre- and post-assessments. On dictated writing…

Co-Constructed Failure Narratives in Mathematics Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeLiema, David

2017-01-01

The ideas students have about what causes math failure are known to impact motivation. This paper throws light on how attributions of failure are negotiated during math tutoring, between 4th/5th graders and volunteer tutors, at a non-profit STEM-based after-school program. The study employs methods of interaction analysis on a small number of…

Towards a Rhetoric of On-line Tutoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coogan, David

Electronic mail-based tutoring of undergraduate writing students upsets the temporal basis of the face-to-face paradigm for writing tutorials. Taking place in real time in a specified place, the face-to-face tutorial session has a beginning, middle and end. Further, the session must have a tangible point. By contrast, in on-line tutoring, time is…

Electronic Tutoring: Long Distance and Long Term.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephenson, Denise R.; Mayberry, Bob

Electronic tutoring can be valuable for writers and should be offered in more university settings, not just in computer labs. Among its advantages is the speed with which commentary can be returned by e-mail. Other advantages were evident in a reciprocal tutoring relationship carried on by two academics in different states. They chose not to edit…

Lecturing skills as predictors of tutoring skills in a problem-based medical curriculum

PubMed Central

Kassab, Salah Eldin; Hassan, Nahla; Abu-Hijleh, Marwan F; Sequeira, Reginald P

2016-01-01

Purpose Recruitment of tutors to work in problem-based learning (PBL) programs is challenging, especially in that most of them are graduated from discipline-based programs. Therefore, this study aims at examining whether lecturing skills of faculty could predict their PBL tutoring skills. Methods This study included evaluation of faculty (n=69) who participated in both tutoring and lecturing within particular PBL units at the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences (CMMS), Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain. Each faculty was evaluated by medical students (n=45±8 for lecturing and 8±2 for PBL tutoring) using structured evaluation forms based on a Likert-type scale (poor to excellent). The prediction of tutoring skills using lecturing skills was statistically analyzed using stepwise linear regression. Results Among the parameters used to judge lecturing skills, the most important predictor for tutoring skills was subject matter mastery in the lecture by explaining difficult concepts and responding effectively to students’ questions. Subject matter mastery in the lecture positively predicted five tutoring skills and accounted for 25% of the variance in overall effectiveness of the PBL tutors (F=22.39, P=0.000). Other important predictors for tutoring skills were providing a relaxed class atmosphere and effective use of audiovisual aids in the lecture. Conclusion Predicting the tutoring skills based on lecturing skills could have implications for recruiting tutors in PBL medical programs and for tutor training initiatives. PMID:26793014

77 FR 73022 - U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-07

... Commerce continues to develop the web- based U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit to be used by foreign environmental officials and foreign end-users of environmental technologies that will outline U.S. approaches to... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit...

Three Years of Intelligent Tutoring Evaluation: A Summary of Findings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orey, Michael

Over the past 3 years, a variety of studies in intelligent tutoring system (ITS) effectiveness have been conducted. A summary is provided of the research into the use of POSIT, MALM, and the Mobile Subscriber Remote-Telephone Terminal (MSRT) Tutor. POSIT is an ITS for the tutoring of whole-number subtraction. It assumes that the learning of a…

Demonstration of the Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit

PubMed Central

Mabachi, Natabhona M.; Cifuentes, Maribel; Barnard, Juliana; Brega, Angela G.; Albright, Karen; Weiss, Barry D.; Brach, Cindy; West, David

2016-01-01

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit was developed to help primary care practices assess and make changes to improve communication with and support for patients. Twelve diverse primary care practices implemented assigned tools over a 6-month period. Qualitative results revealed challenges practices experienced during implementation, including competing demands, bureaucratic hurdles, technological challenges, limited quality improvement experience, and limited leadership support. Practices used the Toolkit flexibly and recognized the efficiencies of implementing tools in tandem and in coordination with other quality improvement initiatives. Practices recommended reducing Toolkit density and making specific refinements. PMID:27232681

Desensitized Optimal Filtering and Sensor Fusion Toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Karlgaard, Christopher D.

2015-01-01

Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc., has developed a software toolkit that filters and processes navigational data from multiple sensor sources. A key component of the toolkit is a trajectory optimization technique that reduces the sensitivity of Kalman filters with respect to model parameter uncertainties. The sensor fusion toolkit also integrates recent advances in adaptive Kalman and sigma-point filters for non-Gaussian problems with error statistics. This Phase II effort provides new filtering and sensor fusion techniques in a convenient package that can be used as a stand-alone application for ground support and/or onboard use. Its modular architecture enables ready integration with existing tools. A suite of sensor models and noise distribution as well as Monte Carlo analysis capability are included to enable statistical performance evaluations.

Increased correlation coefficient between the written test score and tutors' performance test scores after training of tutors for assessment of medical students during problem-based learning course in Malaysia.

PubMed

Jaiprakash, Heethal; Min, Aung Ko Ko; Ghosh, Sarmishtha

2016-03-01

This paper is aimed at finding if there was a change of correlation between the written test score and tutors' performance test scores in the assessment of medical students during a problem-based learning (PBL) course in Malaysia. This is a cross-sectional observational study, conducted among 264 medical students in two groups from November 2010 to November 2012. The first group's tutors did not receive tutor training; while the second group's tutors were trained in the PBL process. Each group was divided into high, middle and low achievers based on their end-of-semester exam scores. PBL scores were taken which included written test scores and tutors' performance test scores. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated between the two kinds of scores in each group. The correlation coefficient between the written scores and tutors' scores in group 1 was 0.099 (p<0.001) and for group 2 was 0.305 (p<0.001). The higher correlation coefficient in the group where tutors received the PBL training reinforces the importance of tutor training before their participation in the PBL course.

Implementing a user-driven online quality improvement toolkit for cancer care.

PubMed

Luck, Jeff; York, Laura S; Bowman, Candice; Gale, Randall C; Smith, Nina; Asch, Steven M

2015-05-01

Peer-to-peer collaboration within integrated health systems requires a mechanism for sharing quality improvement lessons. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) developed online compendia of tools linked to specific cancer quality indicators. We evaluated awareness and use of the toolkits, variation across facilities, impact of social marketing, and factors influencing toolkit use. A diffusion of innovations conceptual framework guided the collection of user activity data from the Toolkit Series SharePoint site and an online survey of potential Lung Cancer Care Toolkit users. The VA Toolkit Series site had 5,088 unique visitors in its first 22 months; 5% of users accounted for 40% of page views. Social marketing communications were correlated with site usage. Of survey respondents (n = 355), 54% had visited the site, of whom 24% downloaded at least one tool. Respondents' awareness of the lung cancer quality performance of their facility, and facility participation in quality improvement collaboratives, were positively associated with Toolkit Series site use. Facility-level lung cancer tool implementation varied widely across tool types. The VA Toolkit Series achieved widespread use and a high degree of user engagement, although use varied widely across facilities. The most active users were aware of and active in cancer care quality improvement. Toolkit use seemed to be reinforced by other quality improvement activities. A combination of user-driven tool creation and centralized toolkit development seemed to be effective for leveraging health information technology to spread disease-specific quality improvement tools within an integrated health care system. Copyright © 2015 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Designing and Delivering Intensive Interventions: A Teacher's Toolkit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Christy S.; Coleman, Meghan A.; Vaughn, Sharon; Wanzek, Jeanne; Roberts, Greg

2012-01-01

This toolkit provides activities and resources to assist practitioners in designing and delivering intensive interventions in reading and mathematics for K-12 students with significant learning difficulties and disabilities. Grounded in research, this toolkit is based on the Center on Instruction's "Intensive Interventions for Students Struggling…

Relationship of tutors' group-dynamics skills to their performance ratings in problem-based learning.

PubMed

Dolmans, D H; Wolfhagen, I H; Scherpbier, A J; Vleuten, C P

2001-05-01

A tutor's performance is often investigated as a stable teacher characteristic, isolated from the context in which the tutor functions. This study investigated the influence of a tutor's group-dynamics skills in differently functioning tutorial groups on performance ratings. Students' ratings of tutors' performances collected from 75 tutorial groups at one school over four different academic years were compared with the independent variables, groups' cohesion scores and sponging scores (the degree to which some students let others do the work), and the intervening variable, tutors' group-dynamics skills. Tutors with strong group-dynamics skills were assigned mean tutor's-performance scores of 7.4 (SD = 0.8) and 8.2 (SD = 0.5), respectively, by groups scoring low and high on cohesion. Tutors with low group-dynamics skills were rated 7.0 (SD = 1.1) and 7.4 (SD = 1.1) by the same groups. The same pattern held for sponging scores. Tutors who had strong group-dynamics skills received mean tutor's-performance scores of 8.1 (SD = 0.6) and 7.4 (SD = 0.8), respectively, from groups with low and high sponging scores. Tutors with weak group-dynamics skills were scored 7.6 (SD = 1.0) and 6.9 (SD = 1.1) by the same groups. Tutors possessing group-dynamics skills were rated higher by students than were tutors who lacked these skills, irrespective of the quality of a tutorial group's performance. A tutor who evaluates tutorial-group function on a regular basis and makes appointments with students based on these evaluations is seen as performing better than a tutor who does not.

The image-guided surgery toolkit IGSTK: an open source C++ software toolkit.

PubMed

Enquobahrie, Andinet; Cheng, Patrick; Gary, Kevin; Ibanez, Luis; Gobbi, David; Lindseth, Frank; Yaniv, Ziv; Aylward, Stephen; Jomier, Julien; Cleary, Kevin

2007-11-01

This paper presents an overview of the image-guided surgery toolkit (IGSTK). IGSTK is an open source C++ software library that provides the basic components needed to develop image-guided surgery applications. It is intended for fast prototyping and development of image-guided surgery applications. The toolkit was developed through a collaboration between academic and industry partners. Because IGSTK was designed for safety-critical applications, the development team has adopted lightweight software processes that emphasizes safety and robustness while, at the same time, supporting geographically separated developers. A software process that is philosophically similar to agile software methods was adopted emphasizing iterative, incremental, and test-driven development principles. The guiding principle in the architecture design of IGSTK is patient safety. The IGSTK team implemented a component-based architecture and used state machine software design methodologies to improve the reliability and safety of the components. Every IGSTK component has a well-defined set of features that are governed by state machines. The state machine ensures that the component is always in a valid state and that all state transitions are valid and meaningful. Realizing that the continued success and viability of an open source toolkit depends on a strong user community, the IGSTK team is following several key strategies to build an active user community. These include maintaining a users and developers' mailing list, providing documentation (application programming interface reference document and book), presenting demonstration applications, and delivering tutorial sessions at relevant scientific conferences.

Simulation-Based Cryosurgery Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) Prototype

PubMed Central

Sehrawat, Anjali; Keelan, Robert; Shimada, Kenji; Wilfong, Dona M.; McCormick, James T.; Rabin, Yoed

2015-01-01

As a part of an ongoing effort to develop computerized training tools for cryosurgery, the current study presents a proof-of-concept for a computerized tool for cryosurgery tutoring. The tutoring system lists geometrical constraints of cryoprobes placement, simulates cryoprobe insertion, displays a rendered shape of the prostate, enables distance measurements, simulates the corresponding thermal history, and evaluates the mismatch between the target region shape and a pre-selected planning isotherm. The quality of trainee planning is measured in comparison with a computer-generated planning, created for each case study by previously developed planning algorithms. Two versions of the tutoring system have been tested in the current study: (i) an unguided version, where the trainee can practice cases in unstructured sessions, and (ii) an intelligent tutoring system (ITS), which forces the trainee to follow specific steps, believed by the authors to potentially shorten the learning curve. While the tutoring level in this study aims only at geometrical constraints on cryoprobe placement and the resulting thermal histories, it creates a unique opportunity to gain insight into the process outside of the operation room. Posttest results indicate that the ITS system maybe more beneficial than the non-ITS system, but the proof-of-concept is demonstrated with either system. PMID:25941163

Two Worlds of Private Tutoring: The Prevalence and Causes of After-School Mathematics Tutoring in Korea and the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Jaekyung

2007-01-01

Background/Context: Although prior research shows that the nature and extent of private tutoring practices vary significantly from country to country, differences between Eastern and Western countries in terms of their cultural and institutional aspects of private tutoring choice have not been closely examined. We need to bridge the gap by…

Tutoring Reading--Valued Youth as Reading Helpers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Juanita C.

2004-01-01

The teacher wondered how her group of middle school tutors would react to reading predictable children's books to their elementary "tutees." Would they enjoy the books or would they think they were too mature to do the activities in the lesson? She wondered if the tutors would enjoy being read to as she modeled the dramatic reading of a children's…

Implementing peer tutoring in a graduate medical education programme.

PubMed

Salerno-Kennedy, Rossana; Henn, Pat; O'Flynn, Siun

2010-06-01

In modern times, peer tutoring methods have been explored in health care education for over 30 years. In this paper, we report our experience of implementing a peer-tutoring approach to Clinical Skills Laboratory (CSL) training in the Graduate Entry in Medicine Programme (GEM) at University College Cork. Eighteen fourth-year medical students were recruited as peer tutors for CSL sessions on physical examination. In order to standardise the process, we developed a training course for peer tutors that comprised two stages. They then ran the practical sessions with junior students, under the watchful eye of medical educators. At the end of the last CSL session, the students were given 10 minutes to reflect individually on the experience, and were asked to complete a feedback form. Twenty-four of the 42 GEM students and six of the seven Senior Tutors (STs) completed and returned their feedback forms. With the caveats of small sample sizes and low response rates, both groups reported that they had both positive and negative experiences of peer tutoring, but that the positive experiences predominated. The overall experience was positive. In terms of the primary thesis of this study, the STs thought that they were well prepared by the teaching staff to take part in these teaching sessions. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2010.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, Peter

1987-01-01

Discusses intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), one application of artificial intelligence to computers used in education. Basic designs of ITSs are described; examples are given including PROUST, GREATERP, and the use of simulation with ITSs; protocol analysis is discussed; and 38 prototype ITSs are listed. (LRW)

TEx-Sys Model for Building Intelligent Tutoring Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stankov, Slavomir; Rosic, Marko; Zitko, Branko; Grubisic, Ani

2008-01-01

Special classes of asynchronous e-learning systems are the intelligent tutoring systems which represent an advanced learning and teaching environment adaptable to individual student's characteristics. Authoring shells have an environment that enables development of the intelligent tutoring systems. In this paper we present, in entirety, for the…

The 2016 ACCP Pharmacotherapy Didactic Curriculum Toolkit.

PubMed

Schwinghammer, Terry L; Crannage, Andrew J; Boyce, Eric G; Bradley, Bridget; Christensen, Alyssa; Dunnenberger, Henry M; Fravel, Michelle; Gurgle, Holly; Hammond, Drayton A; Kwon, Jennifer; Slain, Douglas; Wargo, Kurt A

2016-11-01

The 2016 American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Educational Affairs Committee was charged with updating and contemporizing ACCP's 2009 Pharmacotherapy Didactic Curriculum Toolkit. The toolkit has been designed to guide schools and colleges of pharmacy in developing, maintaining, and modifying their curricula. The 2016 committee reviewed the recent medical literature and other documents to identify disease states that are responsive to drug therapy. Diseases and content topics were organized by organ system, when feasible, and grouped into tiers as defined by practice competency. Tier 1 topics should be taught in a manner that prepares all students to provide collaborative, patient-centered care upon graduation and licensure. Tier 2 topics are generally taught in the professional curriculum, but students may require additional knowledge or skills after graduation (e.g., residency training) to achieve competency in providing direct patient care. Tier 3 topics may not be taught in the professional curriculum; thus, graduates will be required to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills on their own to provide direct patient care, if required in their practice. The 2016 toolkit contains 276 diseases and content topics, of which 87 (32%) are categorized as tier 1, 133 (48%) as tier 2, and 56 (20%) as tier 3. The large number of tier 1 topics will require schools and colleges to use creative pedagogical strategies to achieve the necessary practice competencies. Almost half of the topics (48%) are tier 2, highlighting the importance of postgraduate residency training or equivalent practice experience to competently care for patients with these disorders. The Pharmacotherapy Didactic Curriculum Toolkit will continue to be updated to provide guidance to faculty at schools and colleges of pharmacy as these academic pharmacy institutions regularly evaluate and modify their curricula to keep abreast of scientific advances and associated practice changes. Access the

Land surface Verification Toolkit (LVT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kumar, Sujay V.

2017-01-01

LVT is a framework developed to provide an automated, consolidated environment for systematic land surface model evaluation Includes support for a range of in-situ, remote-sensing and other model and reanalysis products. Supports the analysis of outputs from various LIS subsystems, including LIS-DA, LIS-OPT, LIS-UE. Note: The Land Information System Verification Toolkit (LVT) is a NASA software tool designed to enable the evaluation, analysis and comparison of outputs generated by the Land Information System (LIS). The LVT software is released under the terms and conditions of the NASA Open Source Agreement (NOSA) Version 1.1 or later. Land Information System Verification Toolkit (LVT) NOSA.

Observational analysis of near-peer and faculty tutoring in problem-based learning groups.

PubMed

Cianciolo, Anna T; Kidd, Bryan; Murray, Sean

2016-07-01

Near-peer and faculty staff tutors may facilitate problem-based learning (PBL) through different means. Near-peer tutors are thought to compensate for their lack of subject matter expertise with greater adeptness at group facilitation and a better understanding of their learners. However, theoretical explanations of tutor effectiveness have been developed largely from recollections of tutor practices gathered through student evaluation surveys, focus groups and interviews. A closer look at what happens during PBL sessions tutored by near-peers and faculty members seems warranted to augment theory from a grounded perspective. We conducted an observational study to explore interactional practices during PBL tutorials at our medical school, at which near-peer tutoring of Year 2 students is an established practice. Between October 2014 and May 2015, video-recordings were made of nine purposively sampled tutor groups using three tutor types (near-peer, clinical faculty and basic science faculty staff) across three systems-based units. An investigator team comprising a Year 2 student, a Year 4 student and a behavioural scientist independently analysed the videos until their observations reached saturation and then met face to face to discuss their detailed field notes. Through constant comparison, narratives of tutor practices and group dynamics were generated for each of the nine tutor groups, representing the collective impressions of the members of the investigator team. Variation was greater within than across tutor types. Tutors' practices idiosyncratically and sometimes substantially diverged from PBL principles, yet all tutors attempted to convey authority or 'insider' status with respect to the short- and long-term goals of medical education. Students prompted these status demonstrations by expressing gratitude, asking questions and exhibiting analogous status demonstrations themselves. Understanding the socio-cognitive nature of tutoring from a grounded

What’s about Peer Tutoring Learning Model?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muthma'innah, M.

2017-09-01

Mathematics learning outcomes in Indonesia in general is still far from satisfactory. One effort that could be expected to solve the problem is to apply the model of peer tutoring learning in mathematics. This study aims to determine whether the results of students’ mathematics learning can be enhanced through peer tutoring learning models. This type of research is the study of literature, so that the method used is to summarize and analyze the results of relevant research that has been done. Peer tutoring learning model is a model of learning in which students learn in small groups that are grouped with different ability levels, all group members to work together and help each other to understand the material. By paying attention to the syntax of the learning, then learning will be invaluable peer tutoring for students who served as teachers and students are taught. In mathematics, the implementation of this learning model can make students understand each other mathematical concepts and help students in solving mathematical problems that are poorly understood, due to the interaction between students in learning. Then it will be able to improve learning outcomes in mathematics. The impact, it can be applied in mathematics learning.

78 FR 58520 - U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-24

... notice sets forth a request for input from U.S. businesses capable of exporting their goods or services... and foreign end-users of environmental technologies The Toolkit outline U.S. approaches to a series of environmental problems and highlight participating U.S. vendors of relevant U.S. technologies. The Toolkit will...

The Determinants of Private Tutoring Participation and Attendant Expenditures in Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jung, Jin Hwa; Lee, Kyung Hee

2010-01-01

With the growing worldwide prevalence of private tutoring, the causes and effects of private tutoring have been drawing increasing attention both academically and policy wise. This study intends to draw policy implications by investigating the determinants of private tutoring participation of school-aged children and expenditures per child for…

Mixed-method tutoring support improves learning outcomes of veterinary students in basic subjects.

PubMed

García-Iglesias, María J; Pérez-Martínez, Claudia; Gutiérrez-Martín, César B; Díez-Laiz, Raquel; Sahagún-Prieto, Ana M

2018-02-01

Tutoring is a useful tool in the university teaching-learning binomial, although its development is impaired in large classes. Recent improvements in information and communication technologies have made tutoring possible via the Internet. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of mixed-method academic tutoring in two basic subjects in Veterinary Science studies at the University of León (Spain) to optimize the usefulness of tutoring support in the college environment. This quasi-experimental study was firstly carried out as a pilot study in a small group of tutored students of "Cytology and Histology" (CH) (47/186; 25.3%) and "Veterinary Pharmacology" (VP) (33/141; 23.4%) subjects, and was implemented in a large class of CH the next academic year (150 students) while comparing the results with those obtained in a previous tutorless course (162 students). Tutored students were given access to online questionnaires with electronic feedback on each subject. In addition to traditional tutoring carried out in both tutored and tutorless students, the pilot study included three sessions of face-to-face tutoring in order to monitor the progress of students. Its efficacy was assessed by monitoring students' examination scores and attendance as well as a satisfaction survey. Although the examination attendance rate in the pilot study was not significantly different between tutored and tutorless groups in both subjects, an increase for numerical scores in tutored groups was observed, with a significant higher final score in VP (p = 0.001) and in the CH practice exams (first term, p = 0.009; final, p = 0.023). Good and merit scores were also better in tutored students with significant differences in VP (p = 0.005). Students felt comfortable with the tutoring service (100% in CH; 91.7% in VP). Implementation of this additional support in CH also resulted in a significant increase of attendance at the final exam in tutored courses (87.3% versus 77

Enhancing Student Motivation and Learning within Adaptive Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ostrow, Korinn S.

2015-01-01

My research is rooted in improving K-12 educational practice using motivational facets made possible through adaptive tutoring systems. In an attempt to isolate best practices within the science of learning, I conduct randomized controlled trials within ASSISTments, an online adaptive tutoring system that provides assistance and assessment to…

Tutoring deaf students in higher education: a comparison of baccalaureate and sub-baccalaureate student perceptions.

PubMed

Lang, Harry G; Biser, Eileen; Mousley, Keith; Orlando, Richard; Porter, Jeff

2004-01-01

Seventy-three deaf college students completed a survey examining perceptions about tutoring outcomes and emphases, characteristics of tutors, and responsibilities associated with learning through tutoring. The comparisons revealed that while baccalaureate and sub-baccalaureate students have many similar perceptions about tutoring, there are also some striking differences. In particular, as compared to the sub-baccalaureate students, baccalaureate students have a stronger preference for focusing on course content and for working with tutors who actively involve them during the tutoring sessions. In addition, baccalaureate students prefer to decide the focus of the tutoring themselves while sub-baccalaureate students tend to leave the decision to the tutor. The results of the analyses with three scales measuring perceptions of tutoring dimensions are summarized and recommendations for the selection and preparation of tutors, as well as for future research, are provided.

A Bayesian Tutoring System for Newtonian Mechanics: Can It Adapt to Different Learners?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pek, Peng-Kiat; Poh, Kim-Leng

2004-01-01

Newtonian mechanics is a core module in technology courses, but is difficult for many students to learn. Computerized tutoring can assist the teachers to provide individualized instruction. This article presents the application of decision theory to develop a tutoring system, "iTutor", to select optimal tutoring actions under uncertainty of…

Improving Students' Help-Seeking Skills Using Metacognitive Feedback in an Intelligent Tutoring System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roll, Ido; Aleven, Vincent; McLaren, Bruce M.; Koedinger, Kenneth R.

2011-01-01

The present research investigated whether immediate metacognitive feedback on students' help-seeking errors can help students acquire better help-seeking skills. The Help Tutor, an intelligent tutor agent for help seeking, was integrated into a commercial tutoring system for geometry, the Geometry Cognitive Tutor. Study 1, with 58 students, found…

ASPIRE: An Authoring System and Deployment Environment for Constraint-Based Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitrovic, Antonija; Martin, Brent; Suraweera, Pramuditha; Zakharov, Konstantin; Milik, Nancy; Holland, Jay; McGuigan, Nicholas

2009-01-01

Over the last decade, the Intelligent Computer Tutoring Group (ICTG) has implemented many successful constraint-based Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) in a variety of instructional domains. Our tutors have proven their effectiveness not only in controlled lab studies but also in real classrooms, and some of them have been commercialized.…

An open source toolkit for medical imaging de-identification.

PubMed

González, David Rodríguez; Carpenter, Trevor; van Hemert, Jano I; Wardlaw, Joanna

2010-08-01

Medical imaging acquired for clinical purposes can have several legitimate secondary uses in research projects and teaching libraries. No commonly accepted solution for anonymising these images exists because the amount of personal data that should be preserved varies case by case. Our objective is to provide a flexible mechanism for anonymising Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data that meets the requirements for deployment in multicentre trials. We reviewed our current de-identification practices and defined the relevant use cases to extract the requirements for the de-identification process. We then used these requirements in the design and implementation of the toolkit. Finally, we tested the toolkit taking as a reference those requirements, including a multicentre deployment. The toolkit successfully anonymised DICOM data from various sources. Furthermore, it was shown that it could forward anonymous data to remote destinations, remove burned-in annotations, and add tracking information to the header. The toolkit also implements the DICOM standard confidentiality mechanism. A DICOM de-identification toolkit that facilitates the enforcement of privacy policies was developed. It is highly extensible, provides the necessary flexibility to account for different de-identification requirements and has a low adoption barrier for new users.

Training effectiveness of an intelligent tutoring system for a propulsion console trainer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Debra Steele

1990-01-01

A formative evaluation was conducted on an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) developed for tasks performed on the Propulsion Console. The ITS, which was developed primarily as a research tool, provides training on use of the Manual Select Keyboard (MSK). Three subjects completed three phases of training using the ITS: declarative, speed, and automaticity training. Data were collected on several performance dimensions, including training time, number of trials performed in each training phase, and number of errors. Information was also collected regarding the user interface and content of training. Suggestions for refining the ITS are discussed. Further, future potential uses and limitations of the ITS are discussed. The results provide an initial demonstration of the effectiveness of the Propulsion Console ITS and indicate the potential benefits of this form of training tool for related tasks.

Song tutoring in presinging zebra finch juveniles biases a small population of higher-order song-selective neurons toward the tutor song.

PubMed

Adret, Patrice; Meliza, C Daniel; Margoliash, Daniel

2012-10-01

We explored physiological changes correlated with song tutoring by recording the responses of caudal nidopallium neurons of zebra finches aged P21-P24 (days post hatching) to a broad spectrum of natural and synthetic stimuli. Those birds raised with their fathers tended to show behavioral evidence of song memorization but not of singing; thus auditory responses were not confounded by the birds' own vocalizations. In study 1, 37 of 158 neurons (23%) in 17 of 22 tutored and untutored birds were selective for only 1 of 10 stimuli comprising broadband signals, early juvenile songs and calls, female calls, and adult songs. Approximately 30% of the selective neurons (12/37 neurons in 9 birds) were selective for adult conspecific songs. All these were found in the song system nuclei HVC and paraHVC. Of 122 neurons (17 birds) in tutored birds, all of the conspecific song-selective neurons (8 neurons in 6 birds) were selective for the adult tutor song; none was selective for unfamiliar song. In study 2 with a different sampling strategy, we found that 11 of 12 song-selective neurons in 6 of 7 birds preferred the tutor song; none preferred unfamiliar or familiar conspecific songs. Most of these neurons were found in caudal lateral nidopallium (NCL) below HVC. Thus by the time a bird begins to sing, there are small numbers of tutor song-selective neurons distributed in several forebrain regions. We hypothesize that a small population of higher-order auditory neurons is innately selective for complex features of behaviorally relevant stimuli and these responses are modified by specific perceptual/social experience during development.

Song tutoring in presinging zebra finch juveniles biases a small population of higher-order song-selective neurons toward the tutor song

PubMed Central

Adret, Patrice; Meliza, C. Daniel

2012-01-01

We explored physiological changes correlated with song tutoring by recording the responses of caudal nidopallium neurons of zebra finches aged P21–P24 (days post hatching) to a broad spectrum of natural and synthetic stimuli. Those birds raised with their fathers tended to show behavioral evidence of song memorization but not of singing; thus auditory responses were not confounded by the birds' own vocalizations. In study 1, 37 of 158 neurons (23%) in 17 of 22 tutored and untutored birds were selective for only 1 of 10 stimuli comprising broadband signals, early juvenile songs and calls, female calls, and adult songs. Approximately 30% of the selective neurons (12/37 neurons in 9 birds) were selective for adult conspecific songs. All these were found in the song system nuclei HVC and paraHVC. Of 122 neurons (17 birds) in tutored birds, all of the conspecific song-selective neurons (8 neurons in 6 birds) were selective for the adult tutor song; none was selective for unfamiliar song. In study 2 with a different sampling strategy, we found that 11 of 12 song-selective neurons in 6 of 7 birds preferred the tutor song; none preferred unfamiliar or familiar conspecific songs. Most of these neurons were found in caudal lateral nidopallium (NCL) below HVC. Thus by the time a bird begins to sing, there are small numbers of tutor song-selective neurons distributed in several forebrain regions. We hypothesize that a small population of higher-order auditory neurons is innately selective for complex features of behaviorally relevant stimuli and these responses are modified by specific perceptual/social experience during development. PMID:22786956

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of student tutors as near-peer teachers in the gross anatomy course.

PubMed

Walser, J; Horneffer, A; Oechsner, W; Huber-Lang, M; Gerhardt-Szep, S; Boeckers, A

2017-03-01

Peer teaching is a well-established teaching method in medical education. During the 2012/13 winter term, the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology in Ulm, Germany, introduced a longitudinal didactics program ("Train the Tutor": TtT) to train student tutors as near-peer teachers (NPT) in the dissection course (DC). Twenty-three of 38 tutors participated in the programme. Our study describes the educational concept and the NPTs' activities in the dissection course. NPTs documented their activities on a daily basis in the form of semi-structured reports. A total of 575 reports were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. Free-text analysis was performed using Grounded Theory followed by code quantification of all indications (n=1868). NPTs spend 61% of their time dissecting by themselves or supervising the tutee's dissection process. Organisational tasks had a larger share at the beginning of the course. Just before examinations the proportion of time spent giving feedback rose. Of all positive indications, 45% described experiences working with the tutees. In contrast, 68% of all negative indications were characterized by a self-critical reflection on their own activities. NPTs included all learning domains in their teaching, substantially functioning as teachers and role models to convey particular attitudes. TtT-Trained Tutors (NPT) clearly met the requirements of a practical course and adjusted their activities in response to the course's progress. NPTs were concerned about their tutees' attitudes and may need more professional support within the TtT program regarding this. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Adult Learners, Tutors and the Challenge of Assessment at a Distance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephens, Simon; O'Donnell, David; McCusker, Paul

2007-01-01

This article explores the experiences of adult learners and tutors on a particular externally assessed distance-learning degree programme. On this programme, assignments are set, reviewed and graded independently of the on-site tutor by the external awarding body. An analysis of eight interviews with four tutors and four graduates from one such…

The Role of Human Intelligence in Computer-Based Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Epstein, Kenneth; Hillegeist, Eleanor

An Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) consists of an expert problem-solving program in a subject domain, a tutoring model capable of remediation or primary instruction, and an assessment model that monitors student understanding. The Geometry Proof Tutor (GPT) is an ITS which was developed at Carnegie Mellon University and field tested in the…

Effects of First-Grade Number Knowledge Tutoring With Contrasting Forms of Practice.

PubMed

Fuchs, Lynn S; Geary, David C; Compton, Donald L; Fuchs, Douglas; Schatschneider, Christopher; Hamlett, Carol L; Deselms, Jacqueline; Seethaler, Pamela M; Wilson, Julie; Craddock, Caitlin F; Bryant, Joan D; Luther, Kurstin; Changas, Paul

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 1st-grade number knowledge tutoring with contrasting forms of practice. Tutoring occurred 3 times per week for 16 weeks. In each 30-min session, the major emphasis (25 min) was number knowledge; the other 5 min provided practice in 1 of 2 forms. Nonspeeded practice reinforced relations and principles addressed in number knowledge tutoring. Speeded practice promoted quick responding and use of efficient counting procedures to generate many correct responses. At-risk students were randomly assigned to number knowledge tutoring with speeded practice ( n = 195), number knowledge tutoring with nonspeeded practice ( n = 190), and control (no tutoring, n = 206). Each tutoring condition produced stronger learning than control on all 4 mathematics outcomes. Speeded practice produced stronger learning than nonspeeded practice on arithmetic and 2-digit calculations, but effects were comparable on number knowledge and word problems. Effects of both practice conditions on arithmetic were partially mediated by increased reliance on retrieval, but only speeded practice helped at-risk children compensate for weak reasoning ability.

Effects of First-Grade Number Knowledge Tutoring With Contrasting Forms of Practice

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Geary, David C.; Compton, Donald L.; Fuchs, Douglas; Schatschneider, Christopher; Hamlett, Carol L.; DeSelms, Jacqueline; Seethaler, Pamela M.; Wilson, Julie; Craddock, Caitlin F.; Bryant, Joan D.; Luther, Kurstin; Changas, Paul

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 1st-grade number knowledge tutoring with contrasting forms of practice. Tutoring occurred 3 times per week for 16 weeks. In each 30-min session, the major emphasis (25 min) was number knowledge; the other 5 min provided practice in 1 of 2 forms. Nonspeeded practice reinforced relations and principles addressed in number knowledge tutoring. Speeded practice promoted quick responding and use of efficient counting procedures to generate many correct responses. At-risk students were randomly assigned to number knowledge tutoring with speeded practice (n = 195), number knowledge tutoring with nonspeeded practice (n = 190), and control (no tutoring, n = 206). Each tutoring condition produced stronger learning than control on all 4 mathematics outcomes. Speeded practice produced stronger learning than nonspeeded practice on arithmetic and 2-digit calculations, but effects were comparable on number knowledge and word problems. Effects of both practice conditions on arithmetic were partially mediated by increased reliance on retrieval, but only speeded practice helped at-risk children compensate for weak reasoning ability. PMID:24065865

WIND Toolkit Power Data Site Index

DOE Data Explorer

Draxl, Caroline; Mathias-Hodge, Bri

2016-10-19

This spreadsheet contains per-site metadata for the WIND Toolkit sites and serves as an index for the raw data hosted on Globus connect (nrel#globus:/globusro/met_data). Aside from the metadata, per site average power and capacity factor are given. This data was prepared by 3TIER under contract by NREL and is public domain. Authoritative documentation on the creation of the underlying dataset is at: Final Report on the Creation of the Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit and API: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/66189.pdf

The Relationship between Affective States and Dialog Patterns during Interactions with AutoTutor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graesser, Arthur C.; D'Mello, Sidney K.; Craig, Scotty D.; Witherspoon, Amy; Sullins, Jeremiah; McDaniel, Bethany; Gholson, Barry

2008-01-01

Relations between emotions (affect states) and learning have recently been explored in the context of AutoTutor. AutoTutor is a tutoring system on the Internet that helps learners construct answers to difficult questions by interacting with them in natural language. AutoTutor has an animated conversation agent and a dialog management facility that…

Veterinary Immunology Committee Toolkit Workshop 2010: Progress and plans

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Third Veterinary Immunology Committee (VIC) Toolkit Workshop took place at the Ninth International Veterinary Immunology Symposium (IVIS) in Tokyo, Japan on August 18, 2020. The Workshop built on previous Toolkit Workshops and covered various aspects of reagent development, commercialisation an...

Supporting undergraduate nursing students through structured personal tutoring: Some reflections.

PubMed

Watts, Tessa E

2011-02-01

Support is imperative for nursing students worldwide as they face the many challenges associated with learning and working. Moreover enhancing student retention is an increasing concern for institutions across the globe. The personal tutor is a frequently hidden yet potentially significant figure in many students' experience of higher education. This paper offers some critical reflections on a structured approach to personal tutoring within an undergraduate nursing programme in a research focused Welsh university. Structured personal tutoring can provide an organised, coherent and proactive support system throughout students' educational programmes. However the approach changes the shape of personal tutoring and has the potential to increase academics' workloads and with it costs. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

CRISPR-Cas9 Toolkit for Actinomycete Genome Editing.

PubMed

Tong, Yaojun; Robertsen, Helene Lunde; Blin, Kai; Weber, Tilmann; Lee, Sang Yup

2018-01-01

Bacteria of the order Actinomycetales are one of the most important sources of bioactive natural products, which are the source of many drugs. However, many of them still lack efficient genome editing methods, some strains even cannot be manipulated at all. This restricts systematic metabolic engineering approaches for boosting known and discovering novel natural products. In order to facilitate the genome editing for actinomycetes, we developed a CRISPR-Cas9 toolkit with high efficiency for actinomyces genome editing. This basic toolkit includes a software for spacer (sgRNA) identification, a system for in-frame gene/gene cluster knockout, a system for gene loss-of-function study, a system for generating a random size deletion library, and a system for gene knockdown. For the latter, a uracil-specific excision reagent (USER) cloning technology was adapted to simplify the CRISPR vector construction process. The application of this toolkit was successfully demonstrated by perturbation of genomes of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) and Streptomyces collinus Tü 365. The CRISPR-Cas9 toolkit and related protocol described here can be widely used for metabolic engineering of actinomycetes.

Private Tutoring through the Internet: Globalization and "Offshoring"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ventura, Alexandre; Jang, Sunhwa

2010-01-01

The private tutoring industry has come forward as the third great sector of education. The common sense representation about private tutoring is changing. The growing search for supplementary educational support services and the technological innovation have created a new paradigm. This paper focuses on one of the most interesting faces of this…

Effects of Gifted Peers Tutoring Struggling Reading Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yawn, Christopher D.

2012-01-01

This study examined the effects of a peer tutoring program that used a Direct Instruction (DI) reading curriculum. Students identified as gifted and talented delivered instruction, using the DI reading program, to their struggling reading peers. The students used a cross-skill peer tutoring instructional format. The results indicated that all of…

Peer Tutoring with Child-Centered Play Therapy Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vavreck, Sarah; Esposito, Judy

2012-01-01

The focus of this paper is on responses from fifth grade peer tutors who were trained to use child-centered play therapy language during tutoring sessions with kindergarteners. The focus of this project was to identify academic and social/emotional benefits of participating in the program. Results indicated that participation in the program…

Peer Tutoring and Social Dynamics in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colvin, Janet W.

2007-01-01

Peer tutoring in Higher Education is being used with increasing frequency to aid in student learning, motivation, and empowerment. Although an extensive body of research documents the efficacy of such programs, it exhibits a surprising lack of awareness of the social dynamics involved. This study focuses on peer tutors and students as they…

Who Is the Preferred Tutor in Clinical Skills Training: Physicians, Nurses, or Peers?

PubMed

Abay, Ece Şükriye; Turan, Sevgi; Odabaşı, Orhan; Elçin, Melih

2017-01-01

Phenomenon: Clinical skills centers allow structured training of undergraduate medical students for the acquisition of clinical skills in a simulated environment. Physician, nurse, or peer tutors are employed for training in those centers. All tutors should have appropriate training about the methodology used in the clinical skills training. Many of the studies revealed the effectiveness of various types of tutors. The aim of our study was to evaluate medical students' satisfaction with clinical skills training, and their opinions about the differences in coaching skills among the physician, nurse, and peer tutors. This study was conducted with third-year students (467 students) in 2013-2014 academic year at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine. Participation rate was 85 % (397 students). The students attended the suturing skill training in groups of 40 students. First, a faculty member from the Department of Medical Education delivered a video demonstration and conducted discussion. After the demonstration, the students were divided into groups of 5-6 students. A physician, nurse, or a peer tutor facilitated each group. The students were asked to complete the Coaching Skills Evaluation Form after the practicum session. It contained 13 criteria for assessing the coaching skills. Additionally, the form included a question for rating the student's satisfaction with the tutor. The performance of the tutors at each step was rated on a three-point scale. Kruskal Wallis analysis was used to compare students' scores for their tutors. The students' satisfaction with tutors was high for all of the tutors. However, there was no difference between students' scores in suturing skill, and between physician, nurse, and peer tutors' coaching skills. Insights: In this study, we revealed that physician, nurse, and peer tutors were equally effective on the students' performances. They were also regarded as effective in their teaching role by students. But the most important

The Effect of Attending Tutoring on Course Grades in Calculus I

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rickard, Brian; Mills, Melissa

2018-01-01

Tutoring centres are common in universities in the United States, but there are few published studies that statistically examine the effects of tutoring on student success. This study utilizes multiple regression analysis to model the effect of tutoring attendance on final course grades in Calculus I. Our model predicted that every three visits to…

WIND Toolkit Offshore Summary Dataset

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Draxl, Caroline; Musial, Walt; Scott, George

This dataset contains summary statistics for offshore wind resources for the continental United States derived from the Wind Integration National Datatset (WIND) Toolkit. These data are available in two formats: GDB - Compressed geodatabases containing statistical summaries aligned with lease blocks (aliquots) stored in a GIS format. These data are partitioned into Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf resource regions. HDF5 - Statistical summaries of all points in the offshore Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf offshore regions. These data are located on the original WIND Toolkit grid and have not been reassigned or downsampled to lease blocks. These data were developed under contractmore » by NREL for the Bureau of Oceanic Energy Management (BOEM).« less

The Effect of Senior Medical Student Tutors Compared to Faculty Tutors on Examination Scores of First- and Second-Year Medical Students in Two Problem-Based Learning Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sakai, Damon H; D'Eon, Marcel; Trinder, Krista; Kasuya, Richard T.

2016-01-01

At the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, senior medical student volunteers are used as tutors for some problem-based learning groups in both the first and second years. Previous studies on the advantages and disadvantages of student tutors compared to faculty tutors have been equivocal. This study expected to answer the…

Onsite Peer Tutoring in Mathematics Content Courses for Pre-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Elaine

2011-01-01

Pre-service elementary teachers often need help in mathematics courses. Tutoring is an effective practice (Boylan, 2002) and peer tutoring is one of the most successful forms of tutoring, due to the personal connections that are made (Tinto, 1993). A peer is defined as one at the same level, at the same institution, and having equal status…

Reporting the Effects of Interventions to the Tutor with Meta-Indicators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Després, Christophe; Jacoboni, Pierre; Py, Dominique; Lekira, Aina

2016-01-01

In this paper, we study how to support a human tutor who regulates learners' activities, in a situation of mediated tutoring. Our goal is to provide the tutor with information about the effect of his/her interventions. To achieve this, we adopt an indicator-based approach and define the notion of meta-indicator. The distinguishing feature of…

Tutor Trust Secondary: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buchanan, Emily; Morrison, Jo; Walker, Matthew; Aston, Helen; Cook, Rose

2015-01-01

The Tutor Trust is a Manchester-based charity that aims to provide affordable small group and one-to-one tuition, predominantly to disadvantaged pupils in schools in challenging communities. The tutors are university students and recent graduates, enabling tuition to be provided at a competitive rate on a not-for-profit basis. This three-year…

Determining Difficulty of Questions in Intelligent Tutoring Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunel, Korhan; Asliyan, Rifat

2009-01-01

The object of this study is to model the level of a question difficulty by a differential equation at a pre-specified domain knowledge, to be used in an educational support system. For this purpose, we have developed an intelligent tutoring system for mathematics education. Intelligent Tutoring Systems are computer systems designed for improvement…

The subjective experience of collaboration in interprofessional tutor teams: A qualitative study.

PubMed

Weber, Tobias; Hoffmann, Henriette

2016-01-01

The Center for Interprofessional Training in Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, has offered courses covering interprofessional material since the winter semester 2014/15. The unusual feature of these courses is that they are co-taught by peer tutors from medicine and nursing. This study investigates the subjective experiences of these tutors during the collaborative preparation and teaching of these tutorials with the aim of identifying the effects of equal participation in the perceptions and assessments of the other professional group. Semi-structured, guideline-based interviews were held with six randomly selected tutors. The interviews were analyzed using structuring content analysis. The results show that collaborative work led to reflection, mostly by the university student tutors, on the attitudes held. However, the co-tutors from each professional group were perceived to different degrees as being representative of those in their profession. Asked to master a shared assignment in a non-clinical context, the members of the different professional groups met on equal footing, even if the medical students had already gathered more teaching experience and thus mostly assumed a mentoring role over the course of working on and realizing the teaching units. The nursing tutors were primarily focused on their role as tutor. Both professional groups emphasized that prior to the collaboration they had an insufficient or no idea about the theoretical knowledge or practical skills of the other professional group. Overall, the project was rated as beneficial, and interprofessional education was endorsed. In the discussion, recommendations based on the insights are made for joint tutor training of both professional groups. According to these recommendations, harmonizing the teaching abilities of all tutors is essential to ensure equality during cooperation. Ideally, training programs should be attended

An Analogy-Based Computer Tutor for Remediating Physics Misconceptions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Tom; And Others

1990-01-01

Describes an intelligent tutoring system designed to help students remedy misconceptions of physics concepts based on a teaching strategy called bridging analogies. Highlights include tutoring strategies; misconceptions in science education; the example situation network; confidence checking; formative evaluation with college students, including…

Stepwise Advice Negotiation in Writing Center Peer Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Innhwa

2014-01-01

While the delivery and reception of advice is a practice integral to a wide range of settings, little attention has been given to the detailed practices of advice resistance and how it leads to advice negotiation. Based on 7 hours of videotaped tutoring interactions among 6 tutors and 11 tutees, this conversation analytic study examines the…

Title V-C Indian Education Program Tutor Handbook.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charging, Marilyn

The Sioux City Community Schools Office of Indian Education provides American Indian students with tutoring services through funds from Title V, Part C of the Indian Education Act of 1988 and the Johnson-O'Malley programs. The goal is to reduce the high dropout rate among Indian youth. This tutor handbook contains introductory information for the…

Corruption Risks of Private Tutoring: Case of Georgia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kobakhidze, Magda Nutsa

2014-01-01

The paper focuses on teacher-supplied private tutoring in the context of post-Soviet Georgia, and elucidates the ways in which teacher-supplied private tutoring can be related to educational corruption. The paper draws on data from in-depth interviews of 18 school teachers in different parts of Georgia in 2013. The findings of the qualitative…

MENO-II: An AI-Based Programming Tutor.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-08-01

TUTORing component then attempts to infer the misconception that might underlie the bug and present the student with remedial instruction. We tested the BUG...of the student’s program. The TUTORing component then attempts to inter the misconception that might underlie the bug and present the student with... student errors, MENO-11 can cope with 18 different types of program bugs. These bugs are tied explicitly to a knowledge base of potential misconceptions

Rose garden promises of intelligent tutoring systems: Blossom or thorn

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shute, Valerie J.

1991-01-01

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) have been in existence for over a decade. However, few controlled evaluation studies have been conducted comparing the effectiveness of these systems to more traditional instruction methods. Two main promises of ITSs are examined: (1) Engender more effective and efficient learning in relation to traditional formats; and (2) Reduce the range of learning outcome measures where a majority of individuals are elevated to high performance levels. Bloom (1984) has referred to these as the two sigma problem; to achieve two standard deviation improvements with tutoring over traditional instruction methods. Four ITSs are discussed in relation to the two promises. These tutors have undergone systematic, controlled evaluations: (1) The LISP tutor (Anderson Farrell and Sauers, 1984); (2) Smithtown (Shute and Glaser, in press); (3) Sherlock (Lesgold, Lajoie, Bunzo and Eggan, 1990); and (4) The Pascal ITS (Bonar, Cunningham, Beatty and Well, 1988). Results show that these four tutors do accelerate learning with no degradation in final outcome. Suggestions for improvements to the design and evaluation of ITSs are discussed.

TRSkit: A Simple Digital Library Toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, Michael L.; Esler, Sandra L.

1997-01-01

This paper introduces TRSkit, a simple and effective toolkit for building digital libraries on the World Wide Web. The toolkit was developed for the creation of the Langley Technical Report Server and the NASA Technical Report Server, but is applicable to most simple distribution paradigms. TRSkit contains a handful of freely available software components designed to be run under the UNIX operating system and served via the World Wide Web. The intended customer is the person that must continuously and synchronously distribute anywhere from 100 - 100,000's of information units and does not have extensive resources to devote to the problem.

Toolkit for testing scientific CCD cameras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uzycki, Janusz; Mankiewicz, Lech; Molak, Marcin; Wrochna, Grzegorz

2006-03-01

The CCD Toolkit (1) is a software tool for testing CCD cameras which allows to measure important characteristics of a camera like readout noise, total gain, dark current, 'hot' pixels, useful area, etc. The application makes a statistical analysis of images saved in files with FITS format, commonly used in astronomy. A graphical interface is based on the ROOT package, which offers high functionality and flexibility. The program was developed in a way to ensure future compatibility with different operating systems: Windows and Linux. The CCD Toolkit was created for the "Pie of the Sky" project collaboration (2).

A structure for maturing intelligent tutoring system student models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holmes, Willard M.

1990-01-01

A special structure is examined for evolving a detached model of the user of an intelligent tutoring system. Tutoring is used in the context of education and training devices. A detached approach to populating the student model data structure is examined in the context of the need for time dependent reasoning about what the student knows about a particular concept in the domain of interest. This approach, to generating a data structure for the student model, allows an inference engine separate from the tutoring strategy determination to be used. This methodology has advantages in environments requiring real-time operation.

Risk of Resource Failure and Toolkit Variation in Small-Scale Farmers and Herders

PubMed Central

Collard, Mark; Ruttle, April; Buchanan, Briggs; O’Brien, Michael J.

2012-01-01

Recent work suggests that global variation in toolkit structure among hunter-gatherers is driven by risk of resource failure such that as risk of resource failure increases, toolkits become more diverse and complex. Here we report a study in which we investigated whether the toolkits of small-scale farmers and herders are influenced by risk of resource failure in the same way. In the study, we applied simple linear and multiple regression analysis to data from 45 small-scale food-producing groups to test the risk hypothesis. Our results were not consistent with the hypothesis; none of the risk variables we examined had a significant impact on toolkit diversity or on toolkit complexity. It appears, therefore, that the drivers of toolkit structure differ between hunter-gatherers and small-scale food-producers. PMID:22844421

Third Party TMDL Development Toolkit

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Water Environment Federation's toolkit provides basic steps in which an organization or group other than the lead water quality agency takes responsibility for developing the TMDL document and supporting analysis.

Intelligent tutoring system for clinical reasoning skill acquisition in dental students.

PubMed

Suebnukarn, Siriwan

2009-10-01

Learning clinical reasoning is an important core activity of the modern dental curriculum. This article describes an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) for clinical reasoning skill acquisition. The system is designed to provide an experience that emulates that of live human-tutored problem-based learning (PBL) sessions as much as possible, while at the same time permitting the students to participate collaboratively from disparate locations. The system uses Bayesian networks to model individual student knowledge and activity, as well as that of the group. Tutoring algorithms use the models to generate tutoring hints. The system incorporates a multimodal interface that integrates text and graphics so as to provide a rich communication channel between the students and the system, as well as among students in the group. Comparison of learning outcomes shows that student clinical reasoning gains from the ITS are similar to those obtained from human-tutored sessions.

Identifying and Describing Tutor Archetypes: The Pragmatist, the Architect, and the Surveyor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harootunian, Jeff A.; Quinn, Robert J.

2008-01-01

In this article, the authors identify and anecdotally describe three tutor archetypes: the pragmatist, the architect, and the surveyor. These descriptions, based on observations of remedial mathematics tutors at a land-grant university, shed light on a variety of philosophical beliefs regarding and pedagogical approaches to tutoring. An analysis…

Reexamining the Literature: The Impact of Peer Tutoring on Higher Order Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morano, Stephanie; Riccomini, Paul J.

2017-01-01

The body of peer-tutoring intervention research targeting higher order learning (HOL) objectives for middle and high school students with disabilities is reviewed. Peer-tutoring outcomes are synthesized and studies are analyzed to examine the influence of tutoring procedures and study design features on intervention efficacy. Findings show that…

Implementing a Breastfeeding Toolkit for Nursing Education.

PubMed

Folker-Maglaya, Catherine; Pylman, Maureen E; Couch, Kimberly A; Spatz, Diane L; Marzalik, Penny R

All health professional organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for at least 6 months, with continued breastfeeding for 1 year or more after birth. Women cite lack of support from health professionals as a barrier to breastfeeding. Meanwhile, breastfeeding education is not considered essential to basic nursing education and students are not adequately prepared to support breastfeeding women. Therefore, a toolkit of comprehensive evidence-based breastfeeding educational materials was developed to provide essential breastfeeding knowledge. A study was performed to determine the effectiveness of the breastfeeding toolkit education in an associate degree nursing program. A pretest/posttest survey design with intervention and comparison groups was used. One hundred fourteen students completed pre- and posttests. Student knowledge was measured using a 12-item survey derived with minor modifications from Marzalik's 2004 instrument measuring breastfeeding knowledge. When pre- and posttests scores were compared within groups, both groups' knowledge scores increased. A change score was calculated with a significantly higher mean score for the intervention group. When regression analysis was used to control for the pretest score, belonging to the intervention group increased student scores but not significantly. The toolkit was developed to provide a curriculum that demonstrates enhanced learning to prepare nursing students for practice. The toolkit could be used in other settings, such as to educate staff nurses working with childbearing families.

Investigating Peer Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mynard, Jo; Almarzouqi, Iman

2006-01-01

This article gives an overview of a piece of qualitative research conducted at a women's university in the United Arab Emirates. The aim of the study was to evaluate the English language peer tutoring programme in order to highlight benefits and challenges, and to make informed improvements. The study drew particularly on participant perceptions…

Simulated Students and Classroom Use of Model-Based Intelligent Tutoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koedinger, Kenneth R.

2008-01-01

Two educational uses of models and simulations: 1) Students create models and use simulations ; and 2) Researchers create models of learners to guide development of reliably effective materials. Cognitive tutors simulate and support tutoring - data is crucial to create effective model. Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center: Resources for modeling, authoring, experimentation. Repository of data and theory. Examples of advanced modeling efforts: SimStudent learns rule-based model. Help-seeking model: Tutors metacognition. Scooter uses machine learning detectors of student engagement.

Assessment of Tutoring Laboratories in a Learning Assistance Center

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fullmer, Patricia

2012-01-01

The Learning Resource Center at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, provides tutoring laboratories that are required for developmental reading, writing, and math courses. This article reviews the processes used to plan and determine the effectiveness of the tutoring laboratories, including logic models, student learning outcomes, and the results of…

Effects of Motivation on Students' Ratings of Tutor Behavior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gijselaers, Wim H.; Nuy, Herman

This study, which took place in Maastricht (Netherlands), examined whether motivation affects the reliability of students' ratings about tutor behavior and whether different types of students have different expectations about tutor behavior. Four types of motivation were measured: intrinsic, extrinsic, and achievement motivation, and fear of…

Lessons of Inscription: Tutor Training and the "Professional Conversation."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vandenberg, Peter

1999-01-01

Considers the evolution of writing-tutor pedagogies, from the job-specific training of tutorial-centered "practical" manuals to the professionalizing approach that establishes awareness of the specialized discourse of writing-center scholarship. Suggests that the latter approach also writes tutors into the field's most painful and…

An Intelligent Tutoring System for Introductory C Language Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Song, J. S.; And Others

1997-01-01

This discussion of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) focuses on a description of C-Tutor, a knowledge-based ITS for novice C programmers. The program analyzer, which is a compound of a reverse engineering system and a didactic system, is explained, and implementation and evaluation is discussed. (LRW)

Student Modeling in an Intelligent Tutoring System

DTIC Science & Technology

1996-12-17

Multi-Agent Architecture." Advances in Artificial Intelligence : Proceedings of the 12 th Brazilian Symposium on Aritificial Intelligence , edited by...STUDENT MODELING IN AN INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEM THESIS Jeremy E. Thompson Captain, USAF AFIT/GCS/ENG/96D-27 DIMTVMON* fCKAJWINT A Appr"v*d t=i...Air Force Base, Ohio AFIT/GCS/ENG/96D-27 STUDENT MODELING IN AN INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEM THESIS Jeremy E. Thompson Captain, USAF AFIT/GCS/ENG/96D

Peer tutoring program for academic success of returning nursing students.

PubMed

Bryer, Jennifer

2012-01-01

High attrition rates among students in associate degree nursing programs are a concern for faculty, administrators, and students. Programs offering academic and emotional support for students at risk for failing a clinical course may decrease attrition rates and improve academic performance. A peer tutoring program was developed for returning nursing students who were unsuccessful in a previous clinical course. Peer tutors met with returning students weekly to review course work, complete case studies and practice NCLEX questions. Trusting, supportive relationships developed among students and a significant increase in grades was noted at the end of the course for 79% of students. Implementation of peer tutoring was beneficial for returning students, tutors, and the nursing program and may be valuable in other courses where academic achievement is a concern.

Directive versus Facilitative Peer Tutoring? A View on Students' Appraisal, Reported Learning Gains and Experiences within Two Differently-Tutored Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berghmans, Inneke; Michiels, Lotte; Salmon, Sara; Dochy, Filip; Struyven, Katrien

2014-01-01

The present study aimed to shed light on students' appraisal and reported learning gains in two differently-tutored learning environments (i.e. directively and facilitatively tutored). In order to investigate this, a quasi-experimental study was set up in the context of a clinical skills learning environment. Not only were participating…

Diagnosing turbulence for research aircraft safety using open source toolkits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lang, T. J.; Guy, N.

Open source software toolkits have been developed and applied to diagnose in-cloud turbulence in the vicinity of Earth science research aircraft, via analysis of ground-based Doppler radar data. Based on multiple retrospective analyses, these toolkits show promise for detecting significant turbulence well prior to cloud penetrations by research aircraft. A pilot study demonstrated the ability to provide mission scientists turbulence estimates in near real time during an actual field campaign, and thus these toolkits are recommended for usage in future cloud-penetrating aircraft field campaigns.

The Lean and Environment Toolkit

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This Lean and Environment Toolkit assembles practical experience collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and partner companies and organizations that have experience with coordinating Lean implementation and environmental management.

Supporting the Reflective Practice of Tutors: What Do Tutors Reflect on?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Amani; Mladenovic, Rosina; Segara, Reuben

2010-01-01

Effective self-reflection is a key component of excellent teaching. We describe the types of self-reflection identified in tutors' reflective statements following a peer observation of teaching exercise. We used an adapted version of the categories developed by Grushka, McLeod and Reynolds in 2005 to code text from 20 written statements as…

Behavioral Genetic Toolkits: Toward the Evolutionary Origins of Complex Phenotypes.

PubMed

Rittschof, C C; Robinson, G E

2016-01-01

The discovery of toolkit genes, which are highly conserved genes that consistently regulate the development of similar morphological phenotypes across diverse species, is one of the most well-known observations in the field of evolutionary developmental biology. Surprisingly, this phenomenon is also relevant for a wide array of behavioral phenotypes, despite the fact that these phenotypes are highly complex and regulated by many genes operating in diverse tissues. In this chapter, we review the use of the toolkit concept in the context of behavior, noting the challenges of comparing behaviors and genes across diverse species, but emphasizing the successes in identifying genetic toolkits for behavior; these successes are largely attributable to the creative research approaches fueled by advances in behavioral genomics. We have two general goals: (1) to acknowledge the groundbreaking progress in this field, which offers new approaches to the difficult but exciting challenge of understanding the evolutionary genetic basis of behaviors, some of the most complex phenotypes known, and (2) to provide a theoretical framework that encompasses the scope of behavioral genetic toolkit studies in order to clearly articulate the research questions relevant to the toolkit concept. We emphasize areas for growth and highlight the emerging approaches that are being used to drive the field forward. Behavioral genetic toolkit research has elevated the use of integrative and comparative approaches in the study of behavior, with potentially broad implications for evolutionary biologists and behavioral ecologists alike. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Estimating the Impact of Private Tutoring on Academic Performance: Primary Students in Sri Lanka

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cole, Rachel

2017-01-01

Worldwide private tutoring is documented extensively, but its impact is unclear. I estimate the impact of tutoring on performance to assess the degree to which tutoring is a vehicle of educational stratification in Sri Lanka. I find that on average, five months of tutoring has no impact on Year 5 students' exam scores. I produce suggestive…

What They Take with Them: Findings from the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Bradley; Gillespie, Paula; Kail, Harvey

2010-01-01

Through the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project (PWTARP), the authors have set out to explore and document what peer tutors take with them from their training and experience. The Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project has made it possible for the authors to sample and analyze more systematically the reflections of 126 former tutors from…

Influence of tutors' subject-matter expertise on student effort and achievement in problem-based learning.

PubMed

Schmidt, H G; van der Arend, A; Moust, J H; Kokx, I; Boon, L

1993-10-01

To investigate the effects of tutors' subject-matter expertise on students' levels of academic achievement and study effort in a problem-based health sciences curriculum. Also, to study differences in tutors' behaviors and the influences of these differences on students' performances. Data were analyzed from 336 staff-led tutorial groups involving student participants in seven four-year undergraduate programs at the University of Limburg Faculty of Health Sciences in 1989-90. Overall, 1,925 data records were studied, with each student participating in an average of 1.7 groups led by either content experts or non-experts. The basic analyses were of (1) students' achievement scores as a function of tutors' expertise levels and students' curriculum year; (2) students' estimates of self-study time as a function of tutors' expertise levels and students' curriculum year; and (3) the average ratings of the tutors' behaviors as a function of tutors' expertise levels. Statistical methods included analysis of variance and Pearson correlations. The students guided by subject-matter experts were shown to spend more time on self-directed study, and they achieved somewhat better than did the students guided by non-expert tutors. The effect of subject-matter expertise on achievement was strongest in the first curriculum year, suggesting that novice students are more dependent on their tutors' expertise than are more advanced students. Also, the content-expert tutors made more extensive use of their subject-matter knowledge to guide students. However, in addition to the tutors' knowledge-related behaviors, the tutors' process-facilitation skills affected student achievement. Moreover, these two sets of behaviors were correlated, indicating that both are necessary conditions for effective tutoring. The results indicate that, at least for the curriculum studied, the assumption in the literature that tutors do not necessarily need content knowledge so long as they are skilled in the

The RAPID Toolkit: Facilitating Utility-Scale Renewable Energy Development

Science.gov Websites

energy and bulk transmission projects. The RAPID Toolkit, developed by the National Renewable Energy Renewable Energy Development The RAPID Toolkit: Facilitating Utility-Scale Renewable Energy Development information about federal, state, and local permitting and regulations for utility-scale renewable energy and

Outcomes in a Randomised Controlled Trial of Mathematics Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Topping, K. J.; Miller, D.; Murray, P.; Henderson, S.; Fortuna, C.; Conlin, N.

2011-01-01

Background: Large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCT) are relatively rare in education. The present study was an attempt to scale up previous small peer tutoring projects, while investing only modestly in continuing professional development for teachers. Purpose: A two-year RCT of peer tutoring in mathematics was undertaken in one local…

What Do Distance Language Tutors Say about Teacher Motivation?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xiao, Junhong

2014-01-01

Research into motivation in education mainly centres on students' learning motivation. This article reports on an interview study of teacher motivation with the aim of investigating the effects of student-related factors and tutors' personal factors on the motivation of language tutors in the distance learning context. Findings from the study…

Household Expenditures on Private Tutoring: Emerging Evidence from Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenayathulla, Husaina Banu

2013-01-01

Private tutoring has been a burgeoning phenomenon in Malaysia for decades. This study examines the determinants of private tutoring expenditures in Malaysia using the 2004/2005 Household Expenditures Survey and applies hurdle regression models to the data. The results indicate that total household expenditures, household head's level of education,…

After-School Tutoring and the Distribution of Student Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Min-Hsiung

2013-01-01

As more primary and secondary students worldwide seek after-school tutoring in academic subjects, concerns are being raised about whether after-school tutoring can raise average test scores without widening the variability in student performance, and whether students of certain ability levels may benefit more than others from after-school…

Peer Tutoring as a Technique for Teaching the Unmotivated.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohan, Madan

This study tested the hypothesis that peer tutoring would have a significant, favorable effect on the school achievement, motivation, attitude, and self-concept of unmotivated children, both tutors and tutees. A pilot study and a main study were undertaken, using experimental and control groups. The experimental groups had an orientation session…

NAIF Toolkit - Extended

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Acton, Charles H., Jr.; Bachman, Nathaniel J.; Semenov, Boris V.; Wright, Edward D.

2010-01-01

The Navigation Ancillary Infor ma tion Facility (NAIF) at JPL, acting under the direction of NASA s Office of Space Science, has built a data system named SPICE (Spacecraft Planet Instrument Cmatrix Events) to assist scientists in planning and interpreting scientific observations (see figure). SPICE provides geometric and some other ancillary information needed to recover the full value of science instrument data, including correlation of individual instrument data sets with data from other instruments on the same or other spacecraft. This data system is used to produce space mission observation geometry data sets known as SPICE kernels. It is also used to read SPICE kernels and to compute derived quantities such as positions, orientations, lighting angles, etc. The SPICE toolkit consists of a subroutine/ function library, executable programs (both large applications and simple utilities that focus on kernel management), and simple examples of using SPICE toolkit subroutines. This software is very accurate, thoroughly tested, and portable to all computers. It is extremely stable and reusable on all missions. Since the previous version, three significant capabilities have been added: Interactive Data Language (IDL) interface, MATLAB interface, and a geometric event finder subsystem.

The effects of instructional sets on reactions to and performance on an intelligent tutoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Debra Steele

1993-01-01

The effects of a contextual factor, i.e., task instructions, on performance on and reactions to an Intellegent Tutoring System (ITS) training Remote Manipulator System (RMS) tasks were examined. The results supported the first prediction that task instructions could be used to successfully induce a mastery versus an achievement orientation. Previous research suggests that a mastery orientation can result in beneficial effects on learning and performance of complex tasks. Furthermore, the results supported the second prediction that a mastery orientation would have beneficial effects on learning and performance as well as affective and cognitive reactions to the ITS tasks. Moreover, the results indicated that a mastery orientation was especially beneficial for the more complex ITS tasks and later in task practice, i.e., when a task was performed for the second time. A mastery orientation is posited to have its beneficial effects by focusing more effort and attention on task performance. Conclusions are drawn with some caution due to the small number of subjects, although the results for these subjects were consistent across multiple trials and multiple measures of performance. ITS designers are urged to consider contextual factors such as task instructions and feedback in terms of their potential to induce a mastery versus an achievement orientation.

MAVEN Data Analysis and Visualization Toolkits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harter, B., Jr.; DeWolfe, A. W.; Brain, D.; Chaffin, M.

2017-12-01

The Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission has been collecting data at Mars since September 2014. The MAVEN Science Data Center has developed software toolkits for analyzing and visualizing the science data. Our Data Intercomparison and Visualization Development Effort (DIVIDE) toolkit is written in IDL, and utilizes the widely used "tplot" IDL libraries. Recently, we have converted DIVIDE into Python in an effort to increase the accessibility of the MAVEN data. This conversion also necessitated the development of a Python version of the tplot libraries, which we have dubbed "PyTplot". PyTplot is generalized to work with missions beyond MAVEN, and our software is available on Github.

Lean and Information Technology Toolkit

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Lean and Information Technology Toolkit is a how-to guide which provides resources to environmental agencies to help them use Lean Startup, Lean process improvement, and Agile tools to streamline and automate processes.

Online Tutoring Procedure for Research Project Supervision: Management, Organization and Key Elements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darder Mesquida, Antònia; Pérez Garcias, Adolfina

2015-01-01

Research project tutoring appears as a crucial element for teaching; it is a planned action based on the relationship between a tutor and a student. This paper presents the findings of a design and development research which has as its main aim to create an organization system for the tutoring of online research projects. That system seeks to…

A Case Study of E-Tutors' Teaching Practice: Does Technology Drive Pedagogy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chuang, Hsueh-Hua

2013-01-01

This article presents a case study of e-tutoring teaching practice during a 20-week e-tutoring program aimed at improving the English proficiency of targeted students. The study revealed what and why certain online tools were used by e-tutors and investigated how different technological proficiency and face-to-face (f2f) teaching experience shaped…

Effects of tutor-related behaviours on the process of problem-based learning.

PubMed

Chng, Esther; Yew, Elaine H J; Schmidt, Henk G

2011-10-01

Tutors in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curriculum are thought to play active roles in guiding students to develop frameworks for use in the construction of knowledge. This implies that both subject-matter expertise and the ability of tutors to facilitate the learning process must be important in helping students learn. This study examines the behavioural effects of tutors in terms of subject-matter expertise, social congruence and cognitive congruence on students' learning process and on their final achievement. The extent of students' learning at each PBL phase was estimated by tracking the number of relevant concepts recalled at the end of each learning phase, while student achievement was based on students' ability to describe and elaborate upon the relationship between relevant concepts learned. By using Analysis of Covariance, social congruence of the tutor was found to have a significant influence on learning in each PBL phase while all of the tutor-related behaviours had a significant impact on student achievement. The results suggest that the ability of tutors to communicate informally with students and hence create a less threatening learning environment that promotes a free flow exchange of ideas, has a greater impact on learning at each of the PBL phases as compared to tutors' subject-matter expertise and their ability to explain concepts in a way that is easily understood by students. The data presented indicates that these tutor-related behaviours are determinants of learning in a PBL curriculum, with social congruence having a greater influence on learning in the different PBL phases.

ParCAT: A Parallel Climate Analysis Toolkit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haugen, B.; Smith, B.; Steed, C.; Ricciuto, D. M.; Thornton, P. E.; Shipman, G.

2012-12-01

Climate science has employed increasingly complex models and simulations to analyze the past and predict the future of our climate. The size and dimensionality of climate simulation data has been growing with the complexity of the models. This growth in data is creating a widening gap between the data being produced and the tools necessary to analyze large, high dimensional data sets. With single run data sets increasing into 10's, 100's and even 1000's of gigabytes, parallel computing tools are becoming a necessity in order to analyze and compare climate simulation data. The Parallel Climate Analysis Toolkit (ParCAT) provides basic tools that efficiently use parallel computing techniques to narrow the gap between data set size and analysis tools. ParCAT was created as a collaborative effort between climate scientists and computer scientists in order to provide efficient parallel implementations of the computing tools that are of use to climate scientists. Some of the basic functionalities included in the toolkit are the ability to compute spatio-temporal means and variances, differences between two runs and histograms of the values in a data set. ParCAT is designed to facilitate the "heavy lifting" that is required for large, multidimensional data sets. The toolkit does not focus on performing the final visualizations and presentation of results but rather, reducing large data sets to smaller, more manageable summaries. The output from ParCAT is provided in commonly used file formats (NetCDF, CSV, ASCII) to allow for simple integration with other tools. The toolkit is currently implemented as a command line utility, but will likely also provide a C library for developers interested in tighter software integration. Elements of the toolkit are already being incorporated into projects such as UV-CDAT and CMDX. There is also an effort underway to implement portions of the CCSM Land Model Diagnostics package using ParCAT in conjunction with Python and gnuplot. Par

Peer Tutoring: An Evaluation of the Relative Cognitive Benefits.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKellar, Nancy A.

The relative effectiveness of tutoring for both partners was examined by comparing tutoring with other learning activities that differed either in the amount of exposure to the learning materials or the presence of a helping relationship or both. The subjects were 160 undergraduates who were evaluated on their acquisition of Esperanto. Subjects…

The Effectiveness of Private Tutoring: Students' Perceptions in Comparison with Mainstream Schooling in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhan, Shengli; Bray, Mark; Wang, Dan; Lykins, Chad; Kwo, Ora

2013-01-01

This paper examines Hong Kong students' perceptions on the effectiveness of private supplementary tutoring relative to mainstream schooling. Drawing on survey and interview data, it shows that large proportions of secondary school students receive private tutoring. Students generally perceive private tutoring and private tutors to be more…

ElectronixTutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System with Multiple Learning Resources for Electronics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graesser, Arthur C.; Hu, Xiangen; Nye, Benjamin D.; VanLehn, Kurt; Kumar, Rohit; Heffernan, Cristina; Heffernan, Neil; Woolf, Beverly; Olney, Andrew M.; Rus, Vasile; Andrasik, Frank; Pavlik, Philip; Cai, Zhiqiang; Wetzel, Jon; Morgan, Brent; Hampton, Andrew J.; Lippert, Anne M.; Wang, Lijia; Cheng, Qinyu; Vinson, Joseph E.; Kelly, Craig N.; McGlown, Cadarrius; Majmudar, Charvi A.; Morshed, Bashir; Baer, Whitney

2018-01-01

Background: The Office of Naval Research (ONR) organized a STEM Challenge initiative to explore how intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) can be developed in a reasonable amount of time to help students learn STEM topics. This competitive initiative sponsored four teams that separately developed systems that covered topics in mathematics,…

Web Delivery of Adaptive and Interactive Language Tutoring: Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heift, Trude

2016-01-01

This commentary reconsiders the description and assessment of the design and implementation of "German Tutor," an Intelligent Language Tutoring System (ILTS) for learners of German as a foreign language, published in 2001. Based on our experience over the past 15 years with the design and real classroom use of an ILTS, we address a…

Peer Tutoring Effects on Omani Students' English Self-Concept

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alrajhi, Marwa N.; Aldhafri, Said S.

2015-01-01

Based on the social cognitive learning theory (1997), peer learning can be viewed as an effective way of enhancing learning. In this study, peer tutoring, a form of peer learning, was examined. The current study investigated the influence of a peer tutoring program implemented at Sultan Qaboos University on students' English self-concept. 125…

Nursing students' perceptions of effective problem-based learning tutors.

PubMed

Matthew-Maich, Nancy; Martin, Lynn; Hammond, Cynthia; Palma, Amy; Pavkovic, Maria; Sheremet, Darlene; Roche, Carmen

2016-11-16

Aim To explore baccalaureate nursing students' perceptions of what makes an effective tutor in problem-based learning courses, and the influence of effective teaching on students' learning and experience. Method Students enrolled in all four years of a baccalaureate nursing programme completed online surveys (n=511) and participated in focus groups (n=19). Data were analysed and combined using content analysis. Findings The data were summarised using five themes, the '5 Ps' of effective teaching in problem-based learning. Nursing students perceived effective problem-based learning tutors to be prepared with knowledge and facilitation skills, person-centred, passionate, professional and able to prepare students for success in the nursing programme. Effective tutors adjusted their approaches to students throughout the four years of the nursing programme. Conclusion Effective teaching in problem-based learning is essential and has significant effects on nursing students' learning, motivation and experience. Important attributes, skills and strategies of effective problem-based learning tutors were identified and may be used to enhance teaching and plan professional development initiatives.

Development of a personal-computer-based intelligent tutoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mueller, Stephen J.

1988-01-01

A large number of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) have been built since they were first proposed in the early 1970's. Research conducted on the use of the best of these systems has demonstrated their effectiveness in tutoring in selected domains. A prototype ITS for tutoring students in the use of CLIPS language: CLIPSIT (CLIPS Intelligent Tutor) was developed. For an ITS to be widely accepted, not only must it be effective, flexible, and very responsive, it must also be capable of functioning on readily available computers. While most ITSs have been developed on powerful workstations, CLIPSIT is designed for use on the IBM PC/XT/AT personal computer family (and their clones). There are many issues to consider when developing an ITS on a personal computer such as the teaching strategy, user interface, knowledge representation, and program design methodology. Based on experiences in developing CLIPSIT, results on how to address some of these issues are reported and approaches are suggested for maintaining a powerful learning environment while delivering robust performance within the speed and memory constraints of the personal computer.

Teaching Critical Thinking: An Investigation of a Task in Introductory Macroeconomics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Anna

2004-01-01

This paper is an investigation of understandings of critical thinking from two teaching perspectives: academic staff and tutors. It explores critical thinking as situated within an assessment task in introductory macroeconomics. This study found that while the two academic staff conceptualized critical thinking as a set of concrete cognitive…

Basic Internet Software Toolkit.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buchanan, Larry

1998-01-01

Once schools are connected to the Internet, the next step is getting network workstations configured for Internet access. This article describes a basic toolkit comprising software currently available on the Internet for free or modest cost. Lists URLs for Web browser, Telnet, FTP, file decompression, portable document format (PDF) reader,…

78 FR 14773 - U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit-Landfill Standards

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-07

... and foreign end-users of environmental technologies that will outline U.S. approaches to a series of environmental problems and highlight participating U.S. vendors of relevant U.S. technologies. The Toolkit will... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit...

Factors affecting feeling-of-knowing in a medical intelligent tutoring system: the role of immediate feedback as a metacognitive scaffold.

PubMed

El Saadawi, Gilan M; Azevedo, Roger; Castine, Melissa; Payne, Velma; Medvedeva, Olga; Tseytlin, Eugene; Legowski, Elizabeth; Jukic, Drazen; Crowley, Rebecca S

2010-03-01

were not sufficient to replace immediate feedback in this study. However, results obtained directly from the tutoring system are not consistent with results obtained from assessments. In order to facilitate transfer to real-world tasks, further research will be needed to determine the optimum methods for supporting metacognition as immediate feedback is faded.

An Interview Reflection on "Intelligent Tutoring Goes to School in the Big City"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koedinger, Kenneth R.; Aleven, Vincent

2016-01-01

Our 1997 article in "IJAIED" reported on a study that showed that a new algebra curriculum with an embedded intelligent tutoring system (the Algebra Cognitive Tutor) dramatically enhanced high-school students' learning. The main motivation for the study was to demonstrate that intelligent tutors that have cognitive science research…

chemf: A purely functional chemistry toolkit.

PubMed

Höck, Stefan; Riedl, Rainer

2012-12-20

Although programming in a type-safe and referentially transparent style offers several advantages over working with mutable data structures and side effects, this style of programming has not seen much use in chemistry-related software. Since functional programming languages were designed with referential transparency in mind, these languages offer a lot of support when writing immutable data structures and side-effects free code. We therefore started implementing our own toolkit based on the above programming paradigms in a modern, versatile programming language. We present our initial results with functional programming in chemistry by first describing an immutable data structure for molecular graphs together with a couple of simple algorithms to calculate basic molecular properties before writing a complete SMILES parser in accordance with the OpenSMILES specification. Along the way we show how to deal with input validation, error handling, bulk operations, and parallelization in a purely functional way. At the end we also analyze and improve our algorithms and data structures in terms of performance and compare it to existing toolkits both object-oriented and purely functional. All code was written in Scala, a modern multi-paradigm programming language with a strong support for functional programming and a highly sophisticated type system. We have successfully made the first important steps towards a purely functional chemistry toolkit. The data structures and algorithms presented in this article perform well while at the same time they can be safely used in parallelized applications, such as computer aided drug design experiments, without further adjustments. This stands in contrast to existing object-oriented toolkits where thread safety of data structures and algorithms is a deliberate design decision that can be hard to implement. Finally, the level of type-safety achieved by Scala highly increased the reliability of our code as well as the productivity of

An intelligent computer tutor to guide self-explanation while learning from examples

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conati, Cristina

1999-11-01

Many studies in cognitive science show that self-explanation---the process of clarifying and making more complete to oneself the solution of an example---improves learning, and that guiding self-explanation extends these benefits. This thesis presents an intelligent computer tutor that aims to improve learning from examples by supporting self-explanation. The tutor, known as the SE (self-explanation) Coach, is innovative in two ways. First, it represents the first attempt to develop a computer tutor that supports example studying instead of problem solving. Second, it explicitly guides a domain-general, meta-cognitive skill: self-explanation. The SE-Coach is part of the Andes tutoring system for college physics and is meant to be used in conjunction with the problem solving tasks that Andes supports. In order to maximize the system capability to trigger the same beneficial cognitive processes, every element of the SE-Coach embeds existing hypotheses about the features that make self-explanation effective for learning. Designing the SE-Coach involved finding solutions for three main challenges: (1) To design an interface that effectively monitors and supports self-explanation. (2) To devise a student model that allows the assessment of example understanding from reading and self-examination actions. (3) To effectively elicit further self-explanation that improves student's example understanding. In this work we present our solutions to these challenges: (1) An interface including principled, interactive tools to explore examples and build self-explanations under the SECoach's supervision. (2) A probabilistic student model based on a Bayesian network, which integrates a model of correct self-explanation and information on the student's knowledge and studying actions to generate a probabilistic assessment of the student's example understanding. (3) Tutorial interventions that rely on the student model to detect deficits in the student's example understanding and

Effectiveness of Intelligent Tutoring Systems: A Meta-Analytic Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulik, James A.; Fletcher, J. D.

2016-01-01

This review describes a meta-analysis of findings from 50 controlled evaluations of intelligent computer tutoring systems. The median effect of intelligent tutoring in the 50 evaluations was to raise test scores 0.66 standard deviations over conventional levels, or from the 50th to the 75th percentile. However, the amount of improvement found in…

Private Supplementary Tutoring: Comparative Perspectives on Patterns and Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bray, Mark

2006-01-01

Private supplementary tutoring has long been a major phenomenon in parts of East Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. In recent times it has grown dramatically in other parts of Asia and in Africa, Europe and North America. The factors underlying the growth of private tutoring vary, but in all settings it has major…

Peer Tutoring and Gorgias: Acknowledging Aggression in the Writing Center.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bokser, Julie A.

2001-01-01

Continues a discussion of critiquing peer tutoring groups by underscoring a typically unacknowledged component: the way in which an emphasis on "peerness" disguises the inherent aggression in tutoring relationships. Defines "peerness" as a complicated relation that involves power and aggression as well as equality. (SG)

Provider perceptions of an integrated primary care quality improvement strategy: The PPAQ toolkit.

PubMed

Beehler, Gregory P; Lilienthal, Kaitlin R

2017-02-01

The Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model of integrated primary care is challenging to implement with high fidelity. The Primary Care Behavioral Health Provider Adherence Questionnaire (PPAQ) was designed to assess provider adherence to essential model components and has recently been adapted into a quality improvement toolkit. The aim of this pilot project was to gather preliminary feedback on providers' perceptions of the acceptability and utility of the PPAQ toolkit for making beneficial practice changes. Twelve mental health providers working in Department of Veterans Affairs integrated primary care clinics participated in semistructured interviews to gather quantitative and qualitative data. Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis were used to analyze data. Providers identified several positive features of the PPAQ toolkit organization and structure that resulted in high ratings of acceptability, while also identifying several toolkit components in need of modification to improve usability. Toolkit content was considered highly representative of the (PCBH) model and therefore could be used as a diagnostic self-assessment of model adherence. The toolkit was considered to be high in applicability to providers regardless of their degree of prior professional preparation or current clinical setting. Additionally, providers identified several system-level contextual factors that could impact the usefulness of the toolkit. These findings suggest that frontline mental health providers working in (PCBH) settings may be receptive to using an adherence-focused toolkit for ongoing quality improvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Knowledge information management toolkit and method

DOEpatents

Hempstead, Antoinette R.; Brown, Kenneth L.

2006-08-15

A system is provided for managing user entry and/or modification of knowledge information into a knowledge base file having an integrator support component and a data source access support component. The system includes processing circuitry, memory, a user interface, and a knowledge base toolkit. The memory communicates with the processing circuitry and is configured to store at least one knowledge base. The user interface communicates with the processing circuitry and is configured for user entry and/or modification of knowledge pieces within a knowledge base. The knowledge base toolkit is configured for converting knowledge in at least one knowledge base from a first knowledge base form into a second knowledge base form. A method is also provided.

Evolving the US Climate Resilience Toolkit to Support a Climate-Smart Nation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tilmes, C.; Niepold, F., III; Fox, J. F.; Herring, D.; Dahlman, L. E.; Hall, N.; Gardiner, N.

2015-12-01

Communities, businesses, resource managers, and decision-makers at all levels of government need information to understand and ameliorate climate-related risks. Likewise, climate information can expose latent opportunities. Moving from climate science to social and economic decisions raises complex questions about how to communicate the causes and impacts of climate variability and change; how to characterize and quantify vulnerabilities, risks, and opportunities faced by communities and businesses; and how to make and implement "win-win" adaptation plans at local, regional, and national scales. A broad coalition of federal agencies launched the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit (toolkit.climate.gov) in November 2014 to help our nation build resilience to climate-related extreme events. The site's primary audience is planners and decision makers in business, resource management, and government (at all levels) who seek science-based climate information and tools to help them in their near- and long-term planning. The Executive Office of the President assembled a task force of dozens of subject experts from across the 13 agencies of the U.S. Global Change Research Program to guide the site's development. The site's ongoing evolution is driven by feedback from the target audience. For example, based on feedback, climate projections will soon play a more prominent role in the site's "Climate Explorer" tool and case studies. The site's five-step adaptation planning process is being improved to better facilitate people getting started and to provide clear benchmarks for evaluating progress along the way. In this session, we will share lessons learned from a series of user engagements around the nation and evidence that the Toolkit couples climate information with actionable decision-making processes in ways that are helping Americans build resilience to climate-related stressors.

Does private tutoring increase students' academic performance? Evidence from Turkey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berberoğlu, Giray; Tansel, Aysit

2014-10-01

This paper investigates the effectiveness of private tutoring in Turkey. The authors introduce their study by providing some background information on the two major national examinations and three different kinds of tutoring. They then describe how they aimed to analyse whether attending private tutoring centres (PTCs) enhances Turkish students' academic performance. By way of multiple linear regression analysis, their study sought to evaluate whether the impact of private tutoring varies in different subject areas, taking into account several student-related characteristics such as family and academic backgrounds as well as interest in and perception of academic success. In terms of subject areas, the results indicate that while private tutoring does have a positive impact on academic performance in mathematics and Turkish language, this is not the case in natural sciences. However, as evidenced by the effect sizes, these impacts are rather small compared to the impacts of other variables such as interest in and perception of academic success, high school graduation fields of study, high school cumulative grade point average (CGPA), parental education and students' sociocultural background. While the authors point out that more research on the impact of further important variables needs to be done, their view is that school seems to be an important factor for determining students' academic performance.

Tales of Tutors: The Role of Narrative in Language Learning and Service-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polansky, Susan G.; Andrianoff, Timothy; Bernard, Jaclyn B.; Flores, Ana; Gardocki, Isabel A.; Handerhan, Ryan J.; Park, Jihea; Young, Lisa

2010-01-01

This article examines the role of narrative in the learning process of language tutors in a university service-learning course involving collaboration between an institution of higher learning and public high schools in an urban setting. The tutors' personal narrative reflections offer multiple perspectives on interactions of tutors with high…

Student and Tutor Variables Related to Student Progress in a Reading Tutorial Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willey, Diane L.

This study was conducted to identify student and tutor variables related to student progress in a structured summer reading tutorial program. High school and college students and adults tutored individually 121 elementary and junior high school students for six weeks. Criterion variables were number of tutoring books completed, residual gain…

A Case Study on Leadership Identity Development of Tutors in a Learning Center

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crandall, Samantha L.

2017-01-01

The effectiveness of a tutor training program is often only measured by student results rather than tutor outcomes (CRLA, 2016). Experiences in college, such as on-campus employment, greatly contribute to the development of students (Savoca, 2016). However, little research exists on the leadership development of tutors (NADE, 2016). Having a…

Effects of peer tutoring and consequences on the math performance of elementary classroom students1

PubMed Central

Harris, V. William; Sherman, James A.

1973-01-01

The effects of unstructured peer-tutoring procedures on the math performance of fourth- and fifth-grade students were investigated. Students' performances in two daily math sessions, during which they worked problems of the same type and difficulty, were compared. When students tutored each other over the same math problems as they subsequently worked, higher accuracies and rates of performance were associated with the tutored math sessions. The use of consequences for accurate performance seemed to enhance the effects of tutoring on accuracy. The results from an independent-study control condition, which was the same peer-tutoring except that students did not interact with each other, suggested that interactions between students during the tutoring procedure were, in part, responsible for improved accuracy and rate of performance. When students tutored each other over different but related problems to those that they were subsequently asked to solve, accuracies and rates during tutored math sessions were also higher, suggesting the development of generalized skills in solving particular types of math problems. PMID:16795443

Effects of tutoring in phonological and early reading skills on students at risk for reading disabilities.

PubMed

Vadasy, P F; Jenkins, J R; Pool, K

2000-01-01

This study examined the effectiveness of nonprofessional tutors in a phonologically based reading treatment similar to those in which successful reading outcomes have been demonstrated. Participants were 23 first graders at risk for learning disability who received intensive one-to-one tutoring from noncertified tutors for 30 minutes, 4 days a week, for one school year. Tutoring included instruction in phonological skills, letter-sound correspondence, explicit decoding, rime analysis, writing, spelling, and reading phonetically controlled text. At year end, tutored students significantly outperformed untutored control students on measures of reading, spelling, and decoding. Effect sizes ranged from .42 to 1.24. Treatment effects diminished at follow-up at the end of second grade, although tutored students continued to significantly outperform untutored students in decoding and spelling. Findings suggest that phonologically based reading instruction for first graders at risk for learning disability can be delivered by nonteacher tutors. Our discussion addresses the character of reading outcomes associated with tutoring, individual differences in response to treatment, and the infrastructure required for nonprofessional tutoring programs.

An evaluation of training effectiveness of an intelligent tutoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Debra Steele; Pieper, Kalen F.; Culbert, Chris

1992-01-01

The study evaluated the training effectiveness of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) for the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). The study examined how well individuals learn the training content and skills from the RMS ITS and to what extent the content and skills learned using the ITS transfer to RMS task performance in the SES, a high fidelity simulator. Three astronauts completed 8 2-hour ITS sessions addressing movement in three coordinate systems, grapple, ungrapple, berth, and unberth procedures, and singularities and reach limits. Their performance was also observed in an SES training session. Performance data were collected using multiple measures: ITS task performance, transfer performance on the SES, a conceptual knowledge test, an opinion survey completed by astronauts, and comments and observations from astronauts and trainers. Results indicated the RMS ITS to be moderately effective and provided evidence of the efficacy of ITS's, in general. Comments and suggestions are provided relating to how the ITS could be improved and to enable decision makers to judge the effectiveness of the RMS ITS.

Enhancing Preservice Teachers' Skillsets and Professionalism through Literacy Tutoring Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paquette, Kelli R.; Laverick, DeAnna M.

2017-01-01

This qualitative study explores preservice teachers' experiences in a service-learning literacy tutoring program offered at a university with children in grades one through eight. This study examines briefly the history of literacy centers and service-learning, the specific instructional tutoring methods employed by preservice teachers connected…

Teacher Perceptions of an Online Tutoring Program for Elementary Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whetstone, Patti; Clark, Amy; Flake, Mari Wheeler

2014-01-01

This study explores elementary teacher perceptions related to the implementation of an online tutoring program. Teachers were surveyed regarding factors that affected use of the online tutoring program as a supplement to mathematics instruction. Results indicated that teachers overwhelmingly reported positive views of the training and support…

Two Negatives Equal a Positive: Semiotic Mediation in Peer Tutoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulvaney, Mary Kay

Peer tutoring sessions involving two eighth-grade girls were recorded and analyzed through a Vygotskian lens. A "microgenetic analysis" of particular protocol excerpts from the tutoring sessions was conducted. When a lapse of intersubjectivity existed, participants frequently launched into narrative as a mediating device to negotiate a…

Practitioner Data Use in Schools: Workshop Toolkit. REL 2015-043

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bocala, Candice; Henry, Susan F.; Mundry, Susan; Morgan, Claire

2014-01-01

The "Practitioner Data Use in Schools: Workshop Toolkit" is designed to help practitioners systematically and accurately use data to inform their teaching practice. The toolkit includes an agenda, slide deck, participant workbook, and facilitator's guide and covers the following topics: developing data literacy, engaging in a cycle of…

Tutors' Influence on Distance Language Students' Learning Motivation: Voices from Learners and Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xiao, Junhong

2012-01-01

Teachers' influence on students' learning motivation is a well-researched topic. Nevertheless, the majority of such studies are situated in the conventional learning context despite the rapid growth of distance language learning. This study set out to investigate tutors' influence on students' learning motivation in the Chinese distance language…

RAVE—a Detector-independent vertex reconstruction toolkit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waltenberger, Wolfgang; Mitaroff, Winfried; Moser, Fabian

2007-10-01

A detector-independent toolkit for vertex reconstruction (RAVE ) is being developed, along with a standalone framework (VERTIGO ) for testing, analyzing and debugging. The core algorithms represent state of the art for geometric vertex finding and fitting by both linear (Kalman filter) and robust estimation methods. Main design goals are ease of use, flexibility for embedding into existing software frameworks, extensibility, and openness. The implementation is based on modern object-oriented techniques, is coded in C++ with interfaces for Java and Python, and follows an open-source approach. A beta release is available. VERTIGO = "vertex reconstruction toolkit and interface to generic objects".

NBII-SAIN Data Management Toolkit

USGS Publications Warehouse

Burley, Thomas E.; Peine, John D.

2009-01-01

The Strategic Plan for the U.S. Geological Survey Biological Informatics Program (2005-2009) recognizes the need for effective data management: Though the Federal government invests more than $600 million per year in biological data collection, it is difficult to address these issues because of limited accessibility and lack of standards for data and information...variable quality, sources, methods, and formats (for example observations in the field, museum specimens, and satellite images) present additional challenges. This is further complicated by the fast-moving target of emerging and changing technologies such as GPS and GIS. Even though these technologies offer new solutions, they also create new informatics challenges (Ruggiero and others, 2005). The USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure program, hereafter referred to as NBII, is charged with the mission to improve the way data and information are gathered, documented, stored, and accessed. The central objective of this project is a direct reflection of the purpose of NBII as described by John Mosesso, Program Manager of the U.S. Geological Survey-Biological Informatics Program-GAP Analysis: At the outset, the reason for bringing about NBII was that there were significant amounts of data and information scattered all over the U.S., not accessible, in incompatible formats, and that NBII was tasked with addressing this problem...NBII's focus is to pull data together that truly matters to someone or communities. Essentially, the core questions are: 1) what are the issues, 2) where is the data, and 3) how can we make it usable and accessible (John Mosesso, U.S. Geological Survey, oral commun., 2006). Redundancy in data collection can be a major issue when multiple stakeholders are involved with a common effort. In 2001 the U.S. General Accounting Office (USGAO) estimated that about 50 percent of the Federal government's geospatial data at the time was redundant. In addition, approximately 80

Nurse learners--do nurse tutors know them?

PubMed

Moule, P

1995-04-01

Research was undertaken to establish the social profile of Project 2000 (Diploma) learners, and to determine when, and with whose influence, learners make decisions to enter nursing. The image of nursing held by the group was sought and nurse tutors perceptions of the group were obtained, using a questionnaire method. Results analysed using statistical measures and content analysis showed that the majority of learners came from middle socio-economic backgrounds, generally decided to enter nursing whilst at school, and were influenced by nursing role models and the media. The learners perceptions and expectations of nursing were influenced by their experiences and showed some differences when compared with tutor responses. The findings from this small study imply the need for the dissemination of accurate and appropriate recruitment information to school personnel and career advisors. Effective marketing which addresses influences of the media and nursing role models should be employed, and finally nurse tutors need to be conversant with course content and learner expectations to facilitate effective recruitment policies and curriculum development.

Identity Development in TAs and Tutors: From Preparation to Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bright, Alison Sarah

2010-01-01

This study examines how graduate teaching assistants of composition and peer and professional tutors of writing develop their identities as teacher and tutors in preparation programs. Research in teacher education programs indicates that when preparatory sessions highlight the concept of teacher identity in the preparation of K-12 teacher…

A Hypertext Tutor for Teaching Principles and Techniques of GIS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keller, C. Peter; And Others

1996-01-01

Outlines the teaching environment that led to the conception of a digital tutor for teaching the concepts and techniques of geographic information systems (GIS). Explains the design and prototyping, introduces the tutor's capabilities, and shares insights gained from using this teaching aid. Includes teachers' and students' responses. (MJP)

Constructing Adult Literacies at a Local Literacy Tutor-Training Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roderick, Ryan

2013-01-01

This study investigates how literacy was constructed at an adult literacy organization's volunteer tutor-training program. By drawing on qualitative analysis of training texts used during training, such as training evaluations, and data gathered from interviews with experienced tutors, it is possible to identify the assumptions about literacy…

Teachers Engaging Parents as Tutors to Improve Oral Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kupzyk, Sara S.

2012-01-01

This dissertation examined the application of evidence-based tutoring for oral reading fluency (ORF) to a natural setting, using teachers as parent trainers. Measures used to determine the impact of parent tutoring included treatment integrity, student reading outcomes, attitudes towards involvement and reading, and social validity. Six teachers…

Enhancing the Quality of Tutorials through Peer-Connected Tutor Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calma, Angelito; Eggins, Mark

2012-01-01

This paper investigates how a peer-connected tutor training program can lead to quality enhancement by helping tutors to develop more effective teaching strategies and promoting better learning approaches among business students. It uses 2007-2010 evaluation data from 343 program participants from accounting, economics, finance and management and…

Quality Assurance Toolkit for Distance Higher Education Institutions and Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rama, Kondapalli, Ed.; Hope, Andrea, Ed.

2009-01-01

The Commonwealth of Learning is proud to partner with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Higher Education and UNESCO to produce this "Quality Assurance Toolkit for Distance Higher Education Institutions and Programmes". The Toolkit has been prepared with three features. First, it is a generic document on quality assurance, complete with a…

Voluntary undergraduate technical skills training course to prepare students for clerkship assignment: tutees' and tutors' perspectives.

PubMed

Blohm, Mats; Krautter, Markus; Lauter, Jan; Huber, Julia; Weyrich, Peter; Herzog, Wolfgang; Jünger, Jana; Nikendei, Christoph

2014-04-04

Skills lab training has become a widespread tool in medical education, and nowadays, skills labs are ubiquitous among medical faculties across the world. An increasingly prevalent didactic approach in skills lab teaching is peer-assisted learning (PAL), which has been shown to be not only effective, but can be considered to be on a par with faculty staff-led training. The aim of the study is to determine whether voluntary preclinical skills teaching by peer tutors is a feasible method for preparing medical students for effective workplace learning in clerkships and to investigate both tutees' and tutors' attitudes towards such an intervention. A voluntary clerkship preparation skills course was designed and delivered. N = 135 pre-clinical medical students visited the training sessions. N = 10 tutors were trained as skills-lab peer tutors. Voluntary clerkship preparation skills courses as well as tutor training were evaluated by acceptance ratings and pre-post self-assessment ratings. Furthermore, qualitative analyses of skills lab tutors' attitudes towards the course were conducted following principles of grounded theory. Results show that a voluntary clerkship preparation skills course is in high demand, is highly accepted and leads to significant changes in self-assessment ratings. Regarding qualitative analysis of tutor statements, clerkship preparation skills courses were considered to be a helpful and necessary asset to preclinical medical education, which benefits from the tutors' own clerkship experiences and a high standardization of training. Tutor training is also highly accepted and regarded as an indispensable tool for peer tutors. Our study shows that the demand for voluntary competence-oriented clerkship preparation is high, and a peer tutor-led skills course as well as tutor training is well accepted. The focused didactic approach for tutor training is perceived to be effective in preparing tutors for their teaching activity in this context. A

Development and evaluation of a peer-tutoring program for graduate students*.

PubMed

Copeland, H Liesel; Kinzy, Terri Goss

2005-03-01

Many interdisciplinary Ph.D. programs admit students of different educational backgrounds who receive a first year of a general curriculum education. However, student preparation for this curriculum varies, and methods are needed to provide academic support. Graduate student peer tutoring was piloted as an initiative funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Initiative for Minority Student Development award to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (UMDNJ-RWJMS) and is now offered to all students in the interdisciplinary Molecular Biosciences Ph.D. program between Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and UMDNJ-RWJMS. Tutoring occurs individually or in small groups and has grown over the past 5 years in the number of students tutored and hours of tutoring. The program was evaluated by surveying and interviewing both tutors and students concerning process variables (e.g. awareness, frequency) and impact variables (e.g. perceived benefits, motivators), as well as by assessing changes in exam scores for the four core courses of the first-year graduate curriculum. Copyright © 2005 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Factors Affecting Feeling-of-knowing in a Medical Intelligent Tutoring System – the role of Immediate Feedback as a Metacognitive Scaffold

PubMed Central

El Saadawi, Gilan M.; Azevedo, Roger; Castine, Melissa; Payne, Velma; Medvedeva, Olga; Tseytlin, Eugene; Legowski, Elizabeth; Jukic, Drazen; Crowley, Rebecca S.

2009-01-01

metacognitive scaffolds were not sufficient to replace immediate feedback in this study. However, results obtained directly from the tutoring system are not consistent with results obtained from assessments. In order to facilitate transfer to real-world tasks, further research will be needed to determine the optimum methods for supporting metacognition as immediate feedback is faded. PMID:19434508

A Web-Based Tutor for Java™: Evidence of Meaningful Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emurian, Henry H.

2006-01-01

Students in a graduate class and an undergraduate class in Information Systems completed a Web-based programmed instruction tutor that taught a simple Java applet as the first technical training exercise in a computer programming course. The tutor is a competency-based instructional system for individualized distance learning. When a student…

Tutor-Student Interaction in Seminar Teaching: Implications for Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardman, Jan

2016-01-01

While much of the recent academic literature into university seminar teaching has focused on collaborative learning involving student-student interaction, little research has been done into tutor-student interaction and how tutors interact with students during whole class, group-based and one-to-one teaching. In response to this finding, this…

Self-Assessment in the REAP Tutor: Knowledge, Interest, Motivation, & Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dela Rosa, Kevin; Eskenazi, Maxine

2013-01-01

Self-assessment questionnaires have long been used in tutoring systems to help researchers measure and evaluate various aspects of a student's performance during learning activities. In this paper, we chronicle the efforts made in the REAP project, a language tutor developed to teach vocabulary to ESL students through reading activities, to…

Women in-between' (Strathern, 1995): the ambiguous position of the sister tutor, 1918-1960.

PubMed

Brooks, Jane

2007-02-01

The purpose of this article is to explore the ambiguous position of sister tutors, within the nursing and hospital hierarchy between 1918 and 1960. The function of the sister tutor was to train the probationers (student nurses). However, I will argue that the students' education was to come second to the service needs of the hospital, the authority of the matron and desire of the medical profession to maintain control over the nursing curriculum and nursing practice. Therefore sister tutors were caught 'in-between' several opposing forces which together militated against the individual sister tutor's work and the ability of the nursing profession to recruit adequate numbers of senior nurses into the classroom. The recruitment issue was further hampered by the widespread knowledge that much of the sister tutor's work was not student education at all, but organising lectures by medical staff and marking students' notes. In order to gauge the 'official' attitudes to the sister tutors and also the experiences of those who either worked as sister tutors or were taught by them, I used both archival and oral evidence in the research for this article. Pseudonyms have been used throughout for the oral history respondents.

Multimethod evaluation of the VA's peer-to-peer Toolkit for patient-centered medical home implementation.

PubMed

Luck, Jeff; Bowman, Candice; York, Laura; Midboe, Amanda; Taylor, Thomas; Gale, Randall; Asch, Steven

2014-07-01

Effective implementation of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) in primary care practices requires training and other resources, such as online toolkits, to share strategies and materials. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) developed an online Toolkit of user-sourced tools to support teams implementing its Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) medical home model. To present findings from an evaluation of the PACT Toolkit, including use, variation across facilities, effect of social marketing, and factors influencing use. The Toolkit is an online repository of ready-to-use tools created by VA clinic staff that physicians, nurses, and other team members may share, download, and adopt in order to more effectively implement PCMH principles and improve local performance on VA metrics. Multimethod evaluation using: (1) website usage analytics, (2) an online survey of the PACT community of practice's use of the Toolkit, and (3) key informant interviews. Survey respondents were PACT team members and coaches (n = 544) at 136 VA facilities. Interview respondents were Toolkit users and non-users (n = 32). For survey data, multivariable logistic models were used to predict Toolkit awareness and use. Interviews and open-text survey comments were coded using a "common themes" framework. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) guided data collection and analyses. The Toolkit was used by 6,745 staff in the first 19 months of availability. Among members of the target audience, 80 % had heard of the Toolkit, and of those, 70 % had visited the website. Tools had been implemented at 65 % of facilities. Qualitative findings revealed a range of user perspectives from enthusiastic support to lack of sufficient time to browse the Toolkit. An online Toolkit to support PCMH implementation was used at VA facilities nationwide. Other complex health care organizations may benefit from adopting similar online peer-to-peer resource libraries.

Analysis of clinical practices in the Nursing Degree: Vision of tutors and students.

PubMed

Celma-Vicente, Matilde; López-Morales, Manuel; Cano Caballero-Gálvez, María Dolores

2018-06-08

To discover the opinions of the tutors and students of the Degree in Nursing on clinical practices and identify strategies and improvement proposals for teacher performance. A qualitative study with a phenomenological perspective through focus groups with clinical nurse tutors and nursing students. The participants were divided into 3 groups: students, tutors from the medical area and tutors from the surgical area. The number of groups was determined by saturation of the information. The discourse was transcribed and a syntactic and semantic manual analysis of the discourse was made to extract the analysis variables. Permission was obtained from the Provincial Research Ethics Committee and the corresponding centre. Both the tutors and the students emphasized the need to train tutors in teaching skills and provide them with tools that facilitate their work, as well as the need for formal recognition of their teaching function. In their discourse, both groups proposed a change of vision, and above all of attitudes, in the development of teaching-learning. Finally, there is a need for a change in the model of relations between the University and health services. Based on the above, the need to encourage and train clinical professionals as tutors is identified and a change of model proposed to bring the University and the health system closer together. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

The Effects of the Peer Tutoring Program: An Action Research Study of the Effectiveness of the Peer Tutoring Program at One Suburban Middle School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grubbs, Natalie

2009-01-01

The results of a study that examined the peer tutoring program at a middle school are discussed in this article. In an effort to determine ways to improve the peer tutoring program an action research (AR) mixed design study was developed. AR is practitioner based research. Its purpose is to examine the work of practitioners for effectiveness and…

Adolescent Literacy Tutoring: Face-to-Face and Via Webcam Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houge, Timothy T.; Peyton, David; Geier, Constance; Petrie, Bruce

2007-01-01

The purpose of this research project was to examine the effectiveness of supervised literacy tutoring delivered by 25 secondary teacher candidates to middle and high school students via webcam technology and in person. The results stem from two semester-long studies of technology-delivered tutoring from a university to middle and high school…

College Students' Engagement in E-Tutoring Children in Remote Areas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ChanLin, Lih-Juan; Lin, Hong-Yen; Lu, Tze-Han

2016-01-01

To bridge the digital divide and learning gap among children in remote areas, an online tutoring service has been initiated for after-school learning in remote schools. College students were recruited for the role of teaching and supporting remote learners through online tutoring. This research aimed to study college students' involvement in…

A Spoonful of Success: Undergraduate Tutor-Tutee Interactions and Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marx, Jonathan; Wolf, Michelle G.; Howard, Kimberly

2016-01-01

We explore how the dynamics of the tutor-tutee relationship influence students' self-reliance and, ultimately, course performance. We examine 333 tutor and tutee pairs at a student success center at a public, comprehensive, university attended by approximately 5,000 undergraduates enrolled in more than 60 courses during spring 2015. The results…

Perspectives of New Trades Tutors: Boundary Crossing between Vocational Identities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Selena

2012-01-01

This article reports on a study of the perspectives of new tutors teaching traditional vocational trades who recently commenced teaching in the Institutes of Technologies and Polytechnics (ITPs) sector in New Zealand. The perspectives are collated from questionnaires and interviews of 13 tutors, from five ITPs, who have been teaching full-time for…

What Are Tutors' Experiences with Online Teaching? A Phenomenographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walter, Cvetanka

2016-01-01

This study seeks an understanding of how tutors perceived the online part of a blended learning course in the context of teaching English as a foreign language at a German university. To gain knowledge about the ways in which the tutors experienced the phenomenon, a phenomenographic methodological framework was employed. Identified were four…

Instructional Efficiency of Tutoring in an Outreach Gene Technology Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scharfenberg, Franz-Josef; Bogner, Franz X.

2013-01-01

Our research objective focused on examining the instructional efficiency of tutoring as a form of instructional change as opposed to a non-tutoring approach in an outreach laboratory. We designed our laboratory based on cognitive load (CL) theory. Altogether, 269 twelfth-graders participated in our day-long module "Genetic Fingerprinting." In a…

Using Cognitive Tutor Software in Learning Linear Algebra Word Concept

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Kai-Ju

2015-01-01

This paper reports on a study of twelve 10th grade students using Cognitive Tutor, a math software program, to learn linear algebra word concept. The study's purpose was to examine whether students' mathematics performance as it is related to using Cognitive Tutor provided evidence to support Koedlinger's (2002) four instructional principles used…

Predicting Semantic Changes in Abstraction in Tutor Responses to Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipschultz, Michael; Litman, Diane; Katz, Sandra; Albacete, Patricia; Jordan, Pamela

2014-01-01

Post-problem reflective tutorial dialogues between human tutors and students are examined to predict when the tutor changed the level of abstraction from the student's preceding turn (i.e., used more general terms or more specific terms); such changes correlate with learning. Prior work examined lexical changes in abstraction. In this work, we…

A clinical research analytics toolkit for cohort study.

PubMed

Yu, Yiqin; Zhu, Yu; Sun, Xingzhi; Tao, Ying; Zhang, Shuo; Xu, Linhao; Pan, Yue

2012-01-01

This paper presents a clinical informatics toolkit that can assist physicians to conduct cohort studies effectively and efficiently. The toolkit has three key features: 1) support of procedures defined in epidemiology, 2) recommendation of statistical methods in data analysis, and 3) automatic generation of research reports. On one hand, our system can help physicians control research quality by leveraging the integrated knowledge of epidemiology and medical statistics; on the other hand, it can improve productivity by reducing the complexities for physicians during their cohort studies.

Toolkit of Available EPA Green Infrastructure Modeling Software. National Stormwater Calculator

EPA Science Inventory

This webinar will present a toolkit consisting of five EPA green infrastructure models and tools, along with communication material. This toolkit can be used as a teaching and quick reference resource for use by planners and developers when making green infrastructure implementat...

Enhancing Astronomy Education Through Cross-Age Student Tutoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grundstrom, Erika; Taylor, R. S.

2009-01-01

Vast distances, such as those that pervade astronomy, are difficult concepts to grasp. We are all a part of the Earth-Moon system, however most people do not comprehend the sizes and distances involved. In a pilot study, the authors found that an intervention using both discussion and kinesthetic modeling resulted in students of all ages (children up through adults) acquiring a more accurate mental representation of the Earth-Moon system. We have extended this research and are currently conducting a new study in which undergraduate students serve as "tutors" in a public observatory setting. One of our conjectures is that tutors' mental representations of the Earth-Moon system will be enhanced through their active participation in the cross-age peer tutoring activity. This work is supported in part by grants from the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), the Vanderbilt University Learning Sciences Institute, and NSF Career grant AST-0349075.

ARTIE: An Integrated Environment for the Development of Affective Robot Tutors

PubMed Central

Imbernón Cuadrado, Luis-Eduardo; Manjarrés Riesco, Ángeles; De La Paz López, Félix

2016-01-01

Over the last decade robotics has attracted a great deal of interest from teachers and researchers as a valuable educational tool from preschool to highschool levels. The implementation of social-support behaviors in robot tutors, in particular in the emotional dimension, can make a significant contribution to learning efficiency. With the aim of contributing to the rising field of affective robot tutors we have developed ARTIE (Affective Robot Tutor Integrated Environment). We offer an architectural pattern which integrates any given educational software for primary school children with a component whose function is to identify the emotional state of the students who are interacting with the software, and with the driver of a robot tutor which provides personalized emotional pedagogical support to the students. In order to support the development of affective robot tutors according to the proposed architecture, we also provide a methodology which incorporates a technique for eliciting pedagogical knowledge from teachers, and a generic development platform. This platform contains a component for identiying emotional states by analysing keyboard and mouse interaction data, and a generic affective pedagogical support component which specifies the affective educational interventions (including facial expressions, body language, tone of voice,…) in terms of BML (a Behavior Model Language for virtual agent specification) files which are translated into actions of a robot tutor. The platform and the methodology are both adapted to primary school students. Finally, we illustrate the use of this platform to build a prototype implementation of the architecture, in which the educational software is instantiated with Scratch and the robot tutor with NAO. We also report on a user experiment we carried out to orient the development of the platform and of the prototype. We conclude from our work that, in the case of primary school students, it is possible to identify, without

ARTIE: An Integrated Environment for the Development of Affective Robot Tutors.

PubMed

Imbernón Cuadrado, Luis-Eduardo; Manjarrés Riesco, Ángeles; De La Paz López, Félix

2016-01-01

Over the last decade robotics has attracted a great deal of interest from teachers and researchers as a valuable educational tool from preschool to highschool levels. The implementation of social-support behaviors in robot tutors, in particular in the emotional dimension, can make a significant contribution to learning efficiency. With the aim of contributing to the rising field of affective robot tutors we have developed ARTIE (Affective Robot Tutor Integrated Environment). We offer an architectural pattern which integrates any given educational software for primary school children with a component whose function is to identify the emotional state of the students who are interacting with the software, and with the driver of a robot tutor which provides personalized emotional pedagogical support to the students. In order to support the development of affective robot tutors according to the proposed architecture, we also provide a methodology which incorporates a technique for eliciting pedagogical knowledge from teachers, and a generic development platform. This platform contains a component for identiying emotional states by analysing keyboard and mouse interaction data, and a generic affective pedagogical support component which specifies the affective educational interventions (including facial expressions, body language, tone of voice,…) in terms of BML (a Behavior Model Language for virtual agent specification) files which are translated into actions of a robot tutor. The platform and the methodology are both adapted to primary school students. Finally, we illustrate the use of this platform to build a prototype implementation of the architecture, in which the educational software is instantiated with Scratch and the robot tutor with NAO. We also report on a user experiment we carried out to orient the development of the platform and of the prototype. We conclude from our work that, in the case of primary school students, it is possible to identify, without

Focused didactic training for skills lab student tutors - which techniques are considered helpful?

PubMed

Heni, Martin; Lammerding-Köppel, Maria; Celebi, Nora; Shiozawa, Thomas; Riessen, Reimer; Nikendei, Christoph; Weyrich, Peter

2012-01-01

Peer-assisted learning is widely used in medical education. However, little is known about an appropriate didactic preparation for peer tutors. We herein describe the development of a focused didactic training for skills lab tutors in Internal Medicine and report on a retrospective survey about the student tutors' acceptance and the perceived transferability of attended didactic training modules. The course consisted of five training modules: 1. 'How to present and explain effectively': the student tutors had to give a short presentation with subsequent video analysis and feedback in order to learn methods of effective presentation. 2. 'How to explain precisely': Precise explanation techniques were trained by exercises of exact description of geometric figures and group feedback. 3. 'How to explain on impulse': Spontaneous teaching presentations were simulated and feedback was given. 4. 'Peyton's 4 Step Approach': Peyton's Method for explanation of practical skills was introduced and trained by the participants. 5. 'How to deal with critical incidents': Possibilities to deal with critical teaching situations were worked out in group sessions. Twenty-three student tutors participated in the retrospective survey by filling out an electronic questionnaire, after at least 6 months of teaching experience. The exercise 'How to present and explain effectively' received the student tutors' highest rating for their improvement of didactic qualification and was seen to be most easily transferable into the skills lab environment. This module was rated as the most effective module by nearly half of the participants. It was followed by 'Peyton's 4 Step Approach' , though it was also seen to be the most delicate method in regard to its transfer into the skills lab owing to time concerns. However, it was considered to be highly effective. The other modules received lesser votes by the tutors as the most helpful exercise in improving their didactic qualification for skills lab

Pre-admission factors and utilization of tutoring services in health professions educational programs.

PubMed

Olivares-Urueta, Mayra; Williamson, Jon W

2013-01-01

Pre-admission factors tend to serve as indicators of student success in health professions educational programs, but less is known about the effects that academic assistance programs have on student success. This study sought to determine whether specific pre-admission factors could help to identify students who may require academic support during their health professions education. This retrospective analysis aimed to identify differences in pre-admission variables between those students requiring tutoring and a matched sample of students who did not require tutoring. One-way ANOVA was used to assess differences for dependent variables-age, cumulative GPA (cGPA), science GPA (sGPA), verbal graduate record examination (GRE) score, quantitative GRE score, analytical GRE score and combined GRE score, community college hours, average credit hours per semester, and highest semester credit hour load-across three groups of students who received no tutoring (NT 0 hrs), some tutoring (ST <8 hrs), and more tutoring (MT >8 hrs). Total GRE and average semester hours differentiated NT from ST from MT (p<0.05). A linear regression model with these pre-admission factors found only four of the independent variables to be significant (r2=0.41; p<0.05) in predicting hours of tutoring: quantitative GRE, sGPA, cGPA and average semester hours taken. The combination of lower GRE scores and lighter average semester course load were most predictive of the need for academic assistance as defined by hours of tutoring. While the value of the GRE in admissions processes is generally accepted, the average semester hour load in college can also provide important information regarding academic preparation and the need for tutoring services.

Facilitated family presence at resuscitation: effectiveness of a nursing student toolkit.

PubMed

Kantrowitz-Gordon, Ira; Bennett, Deborah; Wise Stauffer, Debra; Champ-Gibson, Erla; Fitzgerald, Cynthia; Corbett, Cynthia

2013-10-01

Facilitated family presence at resuscitation is endorsed by multiple nursing and specialty practice organizations. Implementation of this practice is not universal so there is a need to increase familiarity and competence with facilitated family presence at resuscitation during this significant life event. One strategy to promote this practice is to use a nursing student toolkit for pre-licensure and graduate nursing students. The toolkit includes short video simulations of facilitated family presence at resuscitation, a PowerPoint presentation of evidence-based practice, and questions to facilitate guided discussion. This study tested the effectiveness of this toolkit in increasing nursing students' knowledge, perceptions, and confidence in facilitated family presence at resuscitation. Nursing students from five universities in the United States completed the Family Presence Risk-Benefit Scale, Family Presence Self-Confidence Scale, and a knowledge test before and after the intervention. Implementing the facilitated family presence at resuscitation toolkit significantly increased nursing students' knowledge, perceptions, and confidence related to facilitated family presence at resuscitation (p<.001). The effect size was large for knowledge (d=.90) and perceptions (d=1.04) and moderate for confidence (d=.51). The facilitated family presence at resuscitation toolkit used in this study had a positive impact on students' knowledge, perception of benefits and risks, and self-confidence in facilitated family presence at resuscitation. The toolkit provides students a structured opportunity to consider the presence of family members at resuscitation prior to encountering this situation in clinical practice. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Web-Based Adaptive Tutor to Teach PCR Primer Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Seters, Janneke R.; Wellink, Joan; Tramper, Johannes; Goedhart, Martin J.; Ossevoort, Miriam A.

2012-01-01

When students have varying prior knowledge, personalized instruction is desirable. One way to personalize instruction is by using adaptive e-learning to offer training of varying complexity. In this study, we developed a web-based adaptive tutor to teach PCR primer design: the PCR Tutor. We used part of the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (the…

Conceptual Tutoring Software for Promoting Deep Learning: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stott, Angela; Hattingh, Annemarie

2015-01-01

The paper presents a case study of the use of conceptual tutoring software to promote deep learning of the scientific concept of density among 50 final year pre-service student teachers in a natural sciences course in a South African university. Individually-paced electronic tutoring is potentially an effective way of meeting the students' varied…

A Window into Mathematical Support: How Parents' Perceptions Change Following Observations of Mathematics Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westenskow, Arla; Boyer-Thurgood, Jennifer; Moyer-Packenham, Patricia S.

2015-01-01

This research study examined the perceptions of 24 parents of rising 5th-grade students with mathematics learning difficulties as part of a 10-week summer mathematics tutoring experience. During the summer tutoring program, parents observed their children participating in mathematics learning experiences during one-to-one tutoring sessions. At the…

Benefits of Structured After-School Literacy Tutoring by University Students for Struggling Elementary Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindo, Endia J.; Weiser, Beverly; Cheatham, Jennifer P.; Allor, Jill H.

2018-01-01

This study examines the effectiveness of minimally trained tutors providing a highly structured tutoring intervention for struggling readers. We screened students in Grades K-6 for participation in an after-school tutoring program. We randomly assigned those students not meeting the benchmark on a reading screening measure to either a tutoring…

The Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit: challenges and advances : 10 years of open-source development.

PubMed

Nolden, Marco; Zelzer, Sascha; Seitel, Alexander; Wald, Diana; Müller, Michael; Franz, Alfred M; Maleike, Daniel; Fangerau, Markus; Baumhauer, Matthias; Maier-Hein, Lena; Maier-Hein, Klaus H; Meinzer, Hans-Peter; Wolf, Ivo

2013-07-01

The Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit (MITK) has been available as open-source software for almost 10 years now. In this period the requirements of software systems in the medical image processing domain have become increasingly complex. The aim of this paper is to show how MITK evolved into a software system that is able to cover all steps of a clinical workflow including data retrieval, image analysis, diagnosis, treatment planning, intervention support, and treatment control. MITK provides modularization and extensibility on different levels. In addition to the original toolkit, a module system, micro services for small, system-wide features, a service-oriented architecture based on the Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi) standard, and an extensible and configurable application framework allow MITK to be used, extended and deployed as needed. A refined software process was implemented to deliver high-quality software, ease the fulfillment of regulatory requirements, and enable teamwork in mixed-competence teams. MITK has been applied by a worldwide community and integrated into a variety of solutions, either at the toolkit level or as an application framework with custom extensions. The MITK Workbench has been released as a highly extensible and customizable end-user application. Optional support for tool tracking, image-guided therapy, diffusion imaging as well as various external packages (e.g. CTK, DCMTK, OpenCV, SOFA, Python) is available. MITK has also been used in several FDA/CE-certified applications, which demonstrates the high-quality software and rigorous development process. MITK provides a versatile platform with a high degree of modularization and interoperability and is well suited to meet the challenging tasks of today's and tomorrow's clinically motivated research.

DynaMIT: the dynamic motif integration toolkit

PubMed Central

Dassi, Erik; Quattrone, Alessandro

2016-01-01

De-novo motif search is a frequently applied bioinformatics procedure to identify and prioritize recurrent elements in sequences sets for biological investigation, such as the ones derived from high-throughput differential expression experiments. Several algorithms have been developed to perform motif search, employing widely different approaches and often giving divergent results. In order to maximize the power of these investigations and ultimately be able to draft solid biological hypotheses, there is the need for applying multiple tools on the same sequences and merge the obtained results. However, motif reporting formats and statistical evaluation methods currently make such an integration task difficult to perform and mostly restricted to specific scenarios. We thus introduce here the Dynamic Motif Integration Toolkit (DynaMIT), an extremely flexible platform allowing to identify motifs employing multiple algorithms, integrate them by means of a user-selected strategy and visualize results in several ways; furthermore, the platform is user-extendible in all its aspects. DynaMIT is freely available at http://cibioltg.bitbucket.org. PMID:26253738

PsyToolkit: a software package for programming psychological experiments using Linux.

PubMed

Stoet, Gijsbert

2010-11-01

PsyToolkit is a set of software tools for programming psychological experiments on Linux computers. Given that PsyToolkit is freely available under the Gnu Public License, open source, and designed such that it can easily be modified and extended for individual needs, it is suitable not only for technically oriented Linux users, but also for students, researchers on small budgets, and universities in developing countries. The software includes a high-level scripting language, a library for the programming language C, and a questionnaire presenter. The software easily integrates with other open source tools, such as the statistical software package R. PsyToolkit is designed to work with external hardware (including IoLab and Cedrus response keyboards and two common digital input/output boards) and to support millisecond timing precision. Four in-depth examples explain the basic functionality of PsyToolkit. Example 1 demonstrates a stimulus-response compatibility experiment. Example 2 demonstrates a novel mouse-controlled visual search experiment. Example 3 shows how to control light emitting diodes using PsyToolkit, and Example 4 shows how to build a light-detection sensor. The last two examples explain the electronic hardware setup such that they can even be used with other software packages.

The development of an artificial organic networks toolkit for LabVIEW.

PubMed

Ponce, Hiram; Ponce, Pedro; Molina, Arturo

2015-03-15

Two of the most challenging problems that scientists and researchers face when they want to experiment with new cutting-edge algorithms are the time-consuming for encoding and the difficulties for linking them with other technologies and devices. In that sense, this article introduces the artificial organic networks toolkit for LabVIEW™ (AON-TL) from the implementation point of view. The toolkit is based on the framework provided by the artificial organic networks technique, giving it the potential to add new algorithms in the future based on this technique. Moreover, the toolkit inherits both the rapid prototyping and the easy-to-use characteristics of the LabVIEW™ software (e.g., graphical programming, transparent usage of other softwares and devices, built-in programming event-driven for user interfaces), to make it simple for the end-user. In fact, the article describes the global architecture of the toolkit, with particular emphasis in the software implementation of the so-called artificial hydrocarbon networks algorithm. Lastly, the article includes two case studies for engineering purposes (i.e., sensor characterization) and chemistry applications (i.e., blood-brain barrier partitioning data model) to show the usage of the toolkit and the potential scalability of the artificial organic networks technique. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

chemf: A purely functional chemistry toolkit

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Although programming in a type-safe and referentially transparent style offers several advantages over working with mutable data structures and side effects, this style of programming has not seen much use in chemistry-related software. Since functional programming languages were designed with referential transparency in mind, these languages offer a lot of support when writing immutable data structures and side-effects free code. We therefore started implementing our own toolkit based on the above programming paradigms in a modern, versatile programming language. Results We present our initial results with functional programming in chemistry by first describing an immutable data structure for molecular graphs together with a couple of simple algorithms to calculate basic molecular properties before writing a complete SMILES parser in accordance with the OpenSMILES specification. Along the way we show how to deal with input validation, error handling, bulk operations, and parallelization in a purely functional way. At the end we also analyze and improve our algorithms and data structures in terms of performance and compare it to existing toolkits both object-oriented and purely functional. All code was written in Scala, a modern multi-paradigm programming language with a strong support for functional programming and a highly sophisticated type system. Conclusions We have successfully made the first important steps towards a purely functional chemistry toolkit. The data structures and algorithms presented in this article perform well while at the same time they can be safely used in parallelized applications, such as computer aided drug design experiments, without further adjustments. This stands in contrast to existing object-oriented toolkits where thread safety of data structures and algorithms is a deliberate design decision that can be hard to implement. Finally, the level of type-safety achieved by Scala highly increased the reliability of our code

Mathematics Student Teachers' Views on Tutor Feedback during Teaching Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buhagiar, Michael A.

2013-01-01

A group of students studying to become mathematics teachers were asked to comment on the tutor feedback they received during teaching practice (TP) and to offer suggestions aimed at improving this feedback. Analysis of the written data--which was collected through emails--suggests the need for: (i) all TP tutors to provide good quality feedback;…

Evaluations of Technology-Assisted Small-Group Tutoring for Struggling Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madden, Nancy A.; Slavin, Robert E.

2017-01-01

This article reports on 2 experiments in inner-city Baltimore evaluating a computer-assisted tutoring approach, Tutoring With Alphie (TWA), in which 1 paraprofessional can work with up to 6 children at a time. In Study 1, we randomly assigned 14 schools to receive TWA or to continue with whatever approaches they were currently using. Each…

Paradoxical Effects of Feedback in International Online Reciprocal Peer Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Topping, K. J.; Dehkinet, R.; Blanch, S.; Corcelles, M.; Duran, D.

2013-01-01

This paper reports an online reciprocal peer tutoring project for improving language competence in Spanish and English. Students aged 9-12 years from Scotland and Catalonia were matched to act as tutors in their own language and as tutees in a modern foreign language. Students were intended to improve both their first language (through helping the…

iSTART-2: A Reading Comprehension and Strategy Instruction Tutor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snow, Erica L.; Jacovina, Matthew E.; Jackson, G. Tanner; McNamara, Danielle S.

2016-01-01

This chapter provides an overview of the Interactive Strategy Tutor for Active Reading and Thinking-2 (iSTART-2). iSTART-2 is a game-based tutoring system designed to improve students' reading comprehension skills. It does so by providing them with instruction on how to self-explain using comprehension strategies. In this chapter, we first discuss…

New Media Matters: Tutoring in the Late Age of Print

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKinney, Jackie Grutsch

2009-01-01

This article has been about reconsidering how writing center directors train tutors to read and respond to texts. The subject here has been new media texts. The author has asked directors to reconsider how they tutor and how they talk to students about their writing. The impetus for these evolved practices is the arrival of increasing numbers of…

Field tests of a participatory ergonomics toolkit for Total Worker Health.

PubMed

Nobrega, Suzanne; Kernan, Laura; Plaku-Alakbarova, Bora; Robertson, Michelle; Warren, Nicholas; Henning, Robert

2017-04-01

Growing interest in Total Worker Health ® (TWH) programs to advance worker safety, health and well-being motivated development of a toolkit to guide their implementation. Iterative design of a program toolkit occurred in which participatory ergonomics (PE) served as the primary basis to plan integrated TWH interventions in four diverse organizations. The toolkit provided start-up guides for committee formation and training, and a structured PE process for generating integrated TWH interventions. Process data from program facilitators and participants throughout program implementation were used for iterative toolkit design. Program success depended on organizational commitment to regular design team meetings with a trained facilitator, the availability of subject matter experts on ergonomics and health to support the design process, and retraining whenever committee turnover occurred. A two committee structure (employee Design Team, management Steering Committee) provided advantages over a single, multilevel committee structure, and enhanced the planning, communication, and teamwork skills of participants. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Field tests of a participatory ergonomics toolkit for Total Worker Health

PubMed Central

Kernan, Laura; Plaku-Alakbarova, Bora; Robertson, Michelle; Warren, Nicholas; Henning, Robert

2018-01-01

Growing interest in Total Worker Health® (TWH) programs to advance worker safety, health and well-being motivated development of a toolkit to guide their implementation. Iterative design of a program toolkit occurred in which participatory ergonomics (PE) served as the primary basis to plan integrated TWH interventions in four diverse organizations. The toolkit provided start-up guides for committee formation and training, and a structured PE process for generating integrated TWH interventions. Process data from program facilitators and participants throughout program implementation were used for iterative toolkit design. Program success depended on organizational commitment to regular design team meetings with a trained facilitator, the availability of subject matter experts on ergonomics and health to support the design process, and retraining whenever committee turnover occurred. A two committee structure (employee Design Team, management Steering Committee) provided advantages over a single, multilevel committee structure, and enhanced the planning, communication, and team-work skills of participants. PMID:28166897

A Flowchart-Based Intelligent Tutoring System for Improving Problem-Solving Skills of Novice Programmers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hooshyar, D.; Ahmad, R. B.; Yousefi, M.; Yusop, F. D.; Horng, S.-J.

2015-01-01

Intelligent tutoring and personalization are considered as the two most important factors in the research of learning systems and environments. An effective tool that can be used to improve problem-solving ability is an Intelligent Tutoring System which is capable of mimicking a human tutor's actions in implementing a one-to-one personalized and…

Practice Report / Bericht aus der Praxis: An exploration of peer tutor roles and recruitment at German medical schools.

PubMed

Alvarez, Simone; Schultz, Jobst-Hendrik

2017-11-01

Almost all medical faculties in Germany actively employ peer tutors. However, little is known about the roles these tutors play from a faculty point of view. Also, there are only few descriptions of the tutor recruitment and selection processes. 32 of the medical faculties in Germany, where tutors are used in the training of medical students, were asked to provide information on the role and recruitment of tutors by means of a partially standardized questionnaire. At the surveyed faculties (return rate 28%), tutors are mostly employed for the purpose of teaching staff support. Even though desired in individual cases, tutors rarely play an active role in curriculum- or faculty development. The way tutor recruitment is handled strongly depends on the capabilities of the individual faculties and the way tutors are utilized. In many cases this process is structured, consisting of written and oral application phases, in other cases recruitment takes place without formal application procedures. The selection criteria, however, were found to be very similar at most faculties. The role of tutors from the faculties' point of view depends strongly on the respective nature of the tutorials, which are just as diverse as the approaches to tutor recruitment. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

How to Build Bridges between Intelligent Tutoring System Subfields of Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pavlik, Philip, Jr.; Toth, Joe

2010-01-01

The plethora of different subfields in intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) are often difficult to integrate theoretically when analyzing how to design an intelligent tutor. Important principles of design are claimed by many subfields, including but not limited to: design, human-computer interaction, perceptual psychology, cognitive psychology,…

Effect of a limited-enforcement intelligent tutoring system in dermatopathology on student errors, goals and solution paths.

PubMed

Payne, Velma L; Medvedeva, Olga; Legowski, Elizabeth; Castine, Melissa; Tseytlin, Eugene; Jukic, Drazen; Crowley, Rebecca S

2009-11-01

Determine effects of a limited-enforcement intelligent tutoring system in dermatopathology on student errors, goals and solution paths. Determine if limited enforcement in a medical tutoring system inhibits students from learning the optimal and most efficient solution path. Describe the type of deviations from the optimal solution path that occur during tutoring, and how these deviations change over time. Determine if the size of the problem-space (domain scope), has an effect on learning gains when using a tutor with limited enforcement. Analyzed data mined from 44 pathology residents using SlideTutor-a Medical Intelligent Tutoring System in Dermatopathology that teaches histopathologic diagnosis and reporting skills based on commonly used diagnostic algorithms. Two subdomains were included in the study representing sub-algorithms of different sizes and complexities. Effects of the tutoring system on student errors, goal states and solution paths were determined. Students gradually increase the frequency of steps that match the tutoring system's expectation of expert performance. Frequency of errors gradually declines in all categories of error significance. Student performance frequently differs from the tutor-defined optimal path. However, as students continue to be tutored, they approach the optimal solution path. Performance in both subdomains was similar for both errors and goal differences. However, the rate at which students progress toward the optimal solution path differs between the two domains. Tutoring in superficial perivascular dermatitis, the larger and more complex domain was associated with a slower rate of approximation towards the optimal solution path. Students benefit from a limited-enforcement tutoring system that leverages diagnostic algorithms but does not prevent alternative strategies. Even with limited enforcement, students converge toward the optimal solution path.

Effectiveness of Intelligent Tutoring Systems: A Meta Analytic Review

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-02-01

studies of peer tutoring in elementary and secondary school mathematics, reported that tutoring programs raised math test scores by an average of 0.60...programs in elementary and secondary schools. Mathes and Fuchs (1994) found an improvement of 0.36 stan- dard deviations in 11 studies of peer...per- centile. Slavin et al. analyzed evaluations carried out in math courses in both middle and high schools. They located 13 evaluations, but only

Teaching the tacit knowledge of programming to noviceswith natural language tutoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lane, H. Chad; Vanlehn, Kurt

2005-09-01

For beginning programmers, inadequate problem solving and planning skills are among the most salient of their weaknesses. In this paper, we test the efficacy of natural language tutoring to teach and scaffold acquisition of these skills. We describe ProPL (Pro-PELL), a dialogue-based intelligent tutoring system that elicits goal decompositions and program plans from students in natural language. The system uses a variety of tutoring tactics that leverage students' intuitive understandings of the problem, how it might be solved, and the underlying concepts of programming. We report the results of a small-scale evaluation comparing students who used ProPL with a control group who read the same content. Our primary findings are that students who received tutoring from ProPL seem to have developed an improved ability to solve the composition problem and displayed behaviors that suggest they were able to think at greater levels of abstraction than students in the read-only group.

Lessons learned in the development of the STOL intelligent tutoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seamster, Thomas; Baker, Clifford; Ames, Troy

1991-01-01

Lessons learned during the development of the NASA Systems Test and Operations Language (STOL) Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), being developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center are presented. The purpose of the intelligent tutor is to train STOL users by adapting tutoring based on inferred student strengths and weaknesses. This system has been under development for over one year and numerous lessons learned have emerged. These observations are presented in three sections, as follows. The first section addresses the methodology employed in the development of the STOL ITS and briefly presents the ITS architecture. The second presents lessons learned, in the areas of: intelligent tutor development; documentation and reporting; cost and schedule control; and tools and shells effectiveness. The third section presents recommendations which may be considered by other ITS developers, addressing: access, use and selection of subject matter experts; steps involved in ITS development; use of ITS interface design prototypes as part of knowledge engineering; and tools and shells effectiveness.

Help Helps, but Only so Much: Research on Help Seeking with Intelligent Tutoring Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aleven, Vincent; Roll, Ido; McLaren, Bruce M.; Koedinger, Kenneth R.

2016-01-01

Help seeking is an important process in self-regulated learning (SRL). It may influence learning with intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), because many ITSs provide help, often at the student's request. The Help Tutor was a tutor agent that gave in-context, real-time feedback on students' help-seeking behavior, as they were learning with an ITS.…

A Utilization-Focused Program Evaluation of a Supplemental Educational Services Third-Party Tutoring Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grainger, Michael J.

2013-01-01

Under the mandates of No Child Left Behind, supplemental educational services (SES) in the form of tutoring are provided to eligible students who attend schools in the 3rd year of program improvement status. A local suburban school district in the southern California currently uses a 3rd party tutoring model to provide tutoring services in both…

A Qualitative Evaluation of Web-Based Cancer Care Quality Improvement Toolkit Use in the Veterans Health Administration.

PubMed

Bowman, Candice; Luck, Jeff; Gale, Randall C; Smith, Nina; York, Laura S; Asch, Steven

2015-01-01

Disease severity, complexity, and patient burden highlight cancer care as a target for quality improvement (QI) interventions. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) implemented a series of disease-specific online cancer care QI toolkits. To describe characteristics of the toolkits, target users, and VHA cancer care facilities that influenced toolkit access and use and assess whether such resources were beneficial for users. Deductive content analysis of detailed notes from 94 telephone interviews with individuals from 48 VHA facilities. We evaluated toolkit access and use across cancer types, participation in learning collaboratives, and affiliation with VHA cancer care facilities. The presence of champions was identified as a strong facilitator of toolkit use, and learning collaboratives were important for spreading information about toolkit availability. Identified barriers included lack of personnel and financial resources and complicated approval processes to support tool use. Online cancer care toolkits are well received across cancer specialties and provider types. Clinicians, administrators, and QI staff may benefit from the availability of toolkits as they become more reliant on rapid access to strategies that support comprehensive delivery of evidence-based care. Toolkits should be considered as a complement to other QI approaches.

A Machine Learning and Optimization Toolkit for the Swarm

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-11-17

Machine   Learning  and  Op0miza0on   Toolkit  for  the  Swarm   Ilge  Akkaya,  Shuhei  Emoto...3. DATES COVERED 00-00-2014 to 00-00-2014 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE A Machine Learning and Optimization Toolkit for the Swarm 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER... machine   learning   methodologies  by  providing  the  right  interfaces  between   machine   learning  tools  and