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1. Utilization of Remote Access Electron Microscopes to Enhance Technology Education and Foster STEM Interest in Preteen Students

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-020-09964-4  

   Wolf, Vanessa; Hsiao, Valerie; Rodriguez, Brandon; Min, Ashley; Mayorga, Jill; Ashcroft, Jared (November 2020, Research in Science Education)

   null (Ed.)

   Remote access technology in STEM education fills dual roles as an educational tool to deliver science education (Educational Technology) and as a means to teach about technology itself (Technology Education). A five-lesson sequence was introduced to 11 and 12-year-old students at an urban school. The lesson sequences were inquiry-based, hands-on, and utilized active learning pedagogies, which have been implemented in STEM classrooms worldwide. Each lesson employed a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) accessed remotely. Students were assessed using multiple-choice questions to ascertain (1) technology education learning gains: did students gain an understanding of how electron microscopes work? and (2) educational technology learning gains: did students gain a better understanding of lesson content through use of the electron microscope? Likert-item surveys were developed, distributed, and analyzed to established how remote access technology affected student attitudes toward science, college, and technology. Participating students had a positive increase in attitudes toward scientific technology by engaging in the lesson sequences, reported positive attitudes toward remote access experiences, and exhibited learning gains in the science behind the SEM technology they accessed remotely. These findings suggest that remote experiences are a strong form of technology education, but also that future research could explore ways to strengthen remote access as an educational technology (a tool to deliver lesson content), such as one-on-one engagement. This study promotes future research into inquiry-based, hands-on, integrated lessons approach that utilize educational technology learning through remote instruments as a pedagogy to increase students’ engagement with and learning of the T in STEM. 

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2. Investigating the Impact of Skill-Related Videos on Online Learning

   Prihar, E; Haim, A; Shen, T; Sales, A; Lee, D; Wu; X (July 2023, Proceedings of the Tenth ACM Conference on Learning@Scale (L@S '23))

   Many online learning platforms and MOOCs incorporate some amount of video-based content into their platform, but there are few randomized controlled experiments that evaluate the effective- ness of the different methods of video integration. Given the large amount of publicly available educational videos, an investigation into this content’s impact on students could help lead to more ef- fective and accessible video integration within learning platforms. In this work, a new feature was added into an existing online learn- ing platform that allowed students to request skill-related videos while completing their online middle-school mathematics assign- ments. A total of 18,535 students participated in two large-scale randomized controlled experiments related to providing students with publicly available educational videos. The first experiment investigated the effect of providing students with the opportunity to request these videos, and the second experiment investigated the effect of using a multi-armed bandit algorithm to recommend relevant videos. Additionally, this work investigated which features of the videos were significantly predictive of students’ performance and which features could be used to personalize students’ learning. Ultimately, students were mostly disinterested in the skill-related videos, preferring instead to use the platforms existing problem- specific support, and there was no statistically significant findings in either experiment. Additionally, while no video features were significantly predictive of students’ performance, two video fea- tures had significant qualitative interactions with students’ prior knowledge, which showed that different content creators were more effective for different groups of students. These findings can be used to inform the design of future video-based features within online learning platforms and the creation of different educational videos specifically targeting higher or lower knowledge students. The data and code used in this work is hosted by the Open Science Foundation. 

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3. Use of virtual reality to engage undergraduate students in environmental field experiences

   https://doi.org/10.1002/fer3.70003  

   Stoner, Elizabeth W; Salina, Steven C; Johnson, Erin M; Whitman, Elizabeth R; Archer, Stephanie K; McPherson, Brodie S; Cranmer, Alexana (April 2025, Future in Educational Research)

   Abstract Field‐based experiences enhance cognitive and affective skill sets of undergraduate students. Although field‐based learning is a highly effective pedagogical modality, it is not accessible to all students, necessitating the development and evaluation of alternate modalities that convey equivalent benefits. Virtual reality (VR) may allow students to engage in experiences without requiring them to be physically present within a field environment. Although VR is gaining popularity, there are limited examples of using it to simulate field experiences and of its efficacy in influencing student learning gains and attitudes toward environmental content. Therefore, we created immersive 360° cinematic VR (CVR) experiences focused on coastal marine ecosystems and compared them to traditional modalities: a field course and 2D videos focused on the same content. Students (n = 86) across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and non‐STEM majors from three institutions—Bentley University, Florida International University, and Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium—were given a preassessment/postassessment to understand learning gains and attitude changes related to each modality. Although significant learning gains happened across all modalities, CVR students experienced the greatest learning gains, though postscores were correlated with prescores and CVR students had lower prescores than field course students. There were no cross‐institutional or major‐related differences in learning gains for field course students. Students across all modalities experienced shifts in attitudes, with consistent increases in the use of keywords related to coastal marine ecosystems in postassessments. Ultimately, CVR is an effective supplement or alternative for undergraduate students who cannot access in‐person field‐based experiences and may be particularly impactful for non‐STEM majors. 

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4. Investigating the Impact of Skill-Related Videos on Online Learning.

   Prihar, E. (July 2023, Proceedings of the Tenth ACM Conference on Learning@Scale (L@S '23), July 20-22, 2023, Copenhagen, Denmark)

   Many online learning platforms and MOOCs incorporate some amount of video-based content into their platform, but there are few randomized controlled experiments that evaluate the effective- ness of the different methods of video integration. Given the large amount of publicly available educational videos, an investigation into this content’s impact on students could help lead to more ef- fective and accessible video integration within learning platforms. In this work, a new feature was added into an existing online learn- ing platform that allowed students to request skill-related videos while completing their online middle-school mathematics assign- ments. A total of 18,535 students participated in two large-scale randomized controlled experiments related to providing students with publicly available educational videos. The first experiment investigated the effect of providing students with the opportunity to request these videos, and the second experiment investigated the effect of using a multi-armed bandit algorithm to recommend relevant videos. Additionally, this work investigated which features of the videos were significantly predictive of students’ performance and which features could be used to personalize students’ learning. Ultimately, students were mostly disinterested in the skill-related videos, preferring instead to use the platforms existing problem- specific support, and there was no statistically significant findings in either experiment. Additionally, while no video features were significantly predictive of students’ performance, two video fea- tures had significant qualitative interactions with students’ prior knowledge, which showed that different content creators were more effective for different groups of students. These findings can be used to inform the design of future video-based features within online learning platforms and the creation of different educational videos specifically targeting higher or lower knowledge students. 

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5. Preparing undergraduates for the post-pandemic workplace: Teams of education and engineering students teach engineering virtually

   https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02383-6  

   Gutierrez, Kristie S; Kidd, Jennifer J; Lee, Min J; Pazos, Pilar; Kaipa, Krishnanand; Ayala, Orlando (December 2023, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications)

   When schools and universities across the world transitioned online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ed+gineering, a National Science Foundation (NSF) project that partners engineering and education undergraduates to design and deliver engineering lessons to elementary students, also had to shift its hands-on lessons to a virtual format. Through the lens of social cognitive theory (SCT), this study investigates engineering and education students’ experiences during the shift to online instruction to understand how they perceived its influence on their learning. As a result of modifying their lessons for online delivery, students reported learning professional skills, including skills for teaching online and educational technology skills, as well as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) content. Some also lamented missed learning opportunities, like practice presenting face-to-face. Students’ affective responses were often associated with preparing and delivering their lessons. SCT sheds light on how the mid-semester change in their environment, caused by the shift in designing and teaching from face-to-face to online, affected the undergraduate engineering and education students’ personal experiences and affect. Overall, the transition to fully online was effective for students’ perceived learning and teaching of engineering. Though students experienced many challenges developing multimedia content for delivering hands-on lessons online, they reported learning new skills and knowledge and expressed positive affective responses. From the gains reported by undergraduates, we believe that this cross-disciplinary virtual team assignment was a successful strategy for helping undergraduates build competencies in virtual skills. We posit that similar assignment structures and opportunities post-pandemic will also continue to prepare future students for the post-pandemic workplace. 

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