The potential of software tools to support learning mathematics is widely acknowledged, but their use can be hindered for many reasons. When teaching future mathematics teachers, we observed that these students were unmotivated to use such tools. This lack of motivation was caused by two concerns held by the students. Firstly, expected difficulty with the software interface (`handling equations with computer interfaces is cumbersome') and secondly, having to do time-consuming exercises on top of the regular pen-and-paper material. To circumvent these concerns, we developed and deployed a set of exercises, categorized in seven different types, that required little effort in terms of equation `writing' with the computer interface but still covered the core mathematical principles taught in the lessons. To allow for sufficient training opportunities, the software automatically created new randomized versions of the same question type. In this paper, we present an exploratory study that discusses the potential of this approach and provides insight on the effectiveness of question types used.
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The Spring of 2020 brought many disruptions to our professional and personal lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced worldwide mid-semester campus closures; pivoting of traditional, face-to-face classes to remote teaching and learning; and postponements or cancellations of conferences, workshops, and other professional development events. One example of the breakdown of scheduled opportunities for us as honors colleagues to gather in-person to enhance our practices and strengthen our community was the cancellation of the 2020 International Conference on Talent Development and Honors Education in Groningen, the Netherlands, originally slated for June 10-12 but moved to June 16-18, 2021. Immediately following the 2020 conference, we (the authors) had planned to offer the fifth Honors International Faculty Institute (HIFI), an international and highly interactive occasion for honors and talent development teachers, researchers, and leaders to engage in presentations, experiential activities, place-as-text explorations, collaborative group work, reflective exercises, and showcases designed to improve teaching, learning, and programming in honors. Suddenly, the coronavirus upended our world, and we had to reimagine the institute that we had previously organized four times alternately at Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands) and Texas Christian University (USA). Putting aside the disappointment of the moment and recognizing the value of coming up with an alternative to HIFI that would ensure the safety and health of our honors colleagues, we decided to create a fully online version with free registration to encourage participation and create resources accessible to all members of our international community. We wanted to highlight the challenges of how all of us unexpectedly had to pivot to remote teaching and learning as the global pandemic intensified, but we also wanted to share information, experiences, and models that could open new avenues for operationalizing online honors education more generally beyond the COVID-19 crisis. We wanted, in other words, to explore how honors pedagogy could (and maybe should) be adapted to the increasingly online world of primary, secondary, and higher education. Thus, HIFLO 2020 was born! HIFLO stands for Honours International Faculty Learning Online.
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Internet technology offers a lot of new opportunities for the dissemination of information, sharing of support and consultation of professionals. Innovating professionals from multiple disciplines have begun to exploit the new opportunities for parenting support. The studies presented in this book are meant to deepen our insights in the subject of online parenting support and investigate the feasibility to use single session email consultation to empower parents. This publication includes: - A systematic review of 75 studies on online parenting support. - A meta-analytic review of 12 studies on online tools to improve parenting. - A content analysis of 129 parenting questions and responses in single session email consultation. - An analysis and validation study of the newly developed Guiding the Empowerment Process model. - An evaluation study of the effects of single session email consultation on parental empowerment. The results of this research indicate that the Internet is not only a source of information, but it can also be an instrument for support and training, aiming to improve parental competencies.
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Background. A number of parenting programs, aimed at improving parenting competencies,have recently been adapted or designed with the use of online technologies. Although webbased services have been claimed to hold promise for parent support, a meta-analytic review of online parenting interventions is lacking. Method. A systematic review was undertaken of studies (n= 19), published between 2000 and 2010, that describe parenting programs of which the primary components were delivered online. Seven programs were adaptations of traditional, mostly evidence-based, parenting interventions, using the unique opportunities of internet technology. Twelve studies (with in total 54 outcomes, Ntot parents = 1,615 and Ntot children = 740) were included in a meta-analysis. Results. The meta-analysis showed a statistically significant medium effect across parents outcomes (ES = 0.67; se = 0.25) and child outcomes (ES = 0.42; se = 0.15). Conclusions. The results of this review show that webbased parenting programs with new technologies offer opportunities for sharing social support, consulting professionals and training parental competencies. The meta-analytic results show that guided and self-guided online interventions can make a significant positive contribution for parents and children. The relation with other meta-analyses in the domains of parent education and web-based interventions is discussed.
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In dit abstract wordt de ontwikkeling van een online onderwijsmodule beschreven gericht op eHealth voor leefstijlverbetering
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Objective: To compare the effects of traditional mirror therapy (MT), a patient-centred teletreatment (PACT) and sensomotor exercises without a mirror on phantom limb pain (PLP). Design: Three-arm multicentre randomized controlled trial. Setting: Rehabilitation centres, hospital and private practices. Subjects: Adult patients with unilateral lower limb amputation and average PLP intensity of at least 3 on the 0–10 Numeric Rating Scale (NRS). Interventions: Subjects randomly received either four weeks of traditional MT followed by a teletreatment using augmented reality MT, traditional MT followed by self-delivered MT or sensomotor exercises of the intact limb without a mirror followed by self-delivered exercises. Main measures: Intensity, frequency and duration of PLP and patient-reported outcomes assessing limitations in daily life at baseline, 4 weeks, 10 weeks and 6 months. Results: In total, 75 patients received traditional MT (n = 25), teletreatment (n = 26) or sensomotor exercises (n = 24). Mean (SD) age was 61.1 (14.2) years and mean (SD) pain intensity was 5.7 (2.1) on the NRS. Effects of MT at four weeks on PLP were not significant. MT significantly reduced the duration of PLP at six months compared to the teletreatment (P = 0.050) and control group (P = 0.019). Subgroup analyses suggested significant effects on PLP in women, patients with telescoping and patients with a motor component in PLP. The teletreatment had no additional effects compared to self-delivered MT at 10 weeks and 6 months. Conclusion: Traditional MT over four weeks was not more effective than sensomotor exercises without a mirror in reducing PLP, although significant effects were suggested in some subgroups.
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Background. A number of parenting programs, aimed at improving parenting competencies, have recently been adapted or designed with the use of online technologies. Although web-based services have been claimed to hold promise for parent support, a meta-analytic review of online parenting interventions is lacking. Method. A systematic review was undertaken of studies (n = 19), published between 2000 and 2010, that describe parenting programs of which the primary components were delivered online. Seven programs were adaptations of traditional, mostly evidencebased, parenting interventions, using the unique opportunities of internet technology. Twelve studies (with in total 54 outcomes, Ntot parents = 1,615 and Ntot children = 740) were included in a meta-analysis. Results. The meta-analysis showed a statistically signifi cant medium effect across parents outcomes (ES = 0.67; se = 0.25) and child outcomes (ES = 0.42; se = 0.15). Conclusions. The results of this review show that web-based parenting programs with new technologies offer opportunities for sharing social support, consulting professionals and training parental competencies. The metaanalytic results show that guided and self-guided online interventions can make a signifi cant positive contribution for parents and children. The relation with other metaanalyses in the domains of parent education and web-based interventions is discussed.
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Described are the results of an investigation in the appreciation of distance learning, limited to a case study with an online lab-experiment. Together with other educational institutes and companies Fontys University of Applied Sciences participated in a number of projects in which distance learning courses were developed. Some courses have been integrated in the regular curriculum. Our study was set up to get insight into the appreciation of students for this way of learning, especially concerning online lab-experiments. By using surveys and interviews after the students accomplished either a regular course or a distance learning course on the same object we tried to get a better understanding of how students used the course and appreciated it. Also we wanted to know whether an online lab-experiment is more or less effective than a regular one. Preliminary data analyses have shown that the appreciation of an online lab-experiment is dependent on a number of items, like the educational contents of the experiment itself, the way accompanying theory is presented, possibilities of doing the experiment in an alternative way, the organization around the experiment etc. It appears also that students give serious suggestions on developing other online lab-experiments.
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Background: Recent transitions in long-term care in the Netherlands have major consequences for community- dwelling older adults. A new paradigm expects them to manage and arrange their own care and support as much as possible. Technology can support this shift. A study has been conducted to explore the needs of community- dwelling frail older adults with regard to an online platform. An existing platform was subsequently modified, based upon these needs, resulting in an online community care platform (OCC-platform) comprising of care, health, and communication functions. The purpose of this platform was to support frail older adults in their independence and functioning, by stimulating self-care and providing reliable information, products and services. Methods: The study used a User-Centred Design. The development processes involved the following steps: Step 1) Identification of the User Requirements. To assess the user requirements, direct observations (N = 3) and interviews (N = 14) were performed. Step 2) Modification of an Existing Online Platform. Based upon Step 1, available online platforms were explored to determine whether an existing useful product was available. Two companies collaborated in modifying such a platform; Step 3) Testing the Modified Platform. A total of 73 older adults were invited to test a prototype of the OCC-platform during 6 months, which comprised of two phases: (1) a training phase; and (2) a testing phase. Results: An iterative process of modifications resulted in an interactive software concept on a Standard PC, containing 11 Functions. The Functions of ‘contacts’, ‘services’ and ‘messaging’, were by far, the most frequently used. The use was at its highest during the first 2 weeks of the testing and then its use steadily declined. The vast majority of the subjects (94%) were positive about the usability of the platform. Only a minority of the subjects (27%) indicated that the platform had added value for them. Conclusion: The overall prospect was that an OCC-platform can contribute to the social participation and the self-management competencies of frail older adults, together with their social cohesion in the community. In order to validate these prospects, further research is needed on the characteristics and the impact of online platforms.
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The unexpected death of a child is one of the most challenging losses as it fractures survivors’ sense of parenthood and other layers of identity. Given that not all the bereaved parents who have need for support respond well to available treatments and that many have little access to further intervention or follow-up over time, online interventions featuring therapeutic writing and peer support have strong potential. In this article we explore how a group of bereaved mothers experienced the process of participating in an online course in therapeutic writing for the integration of grief. Our research questions were: How do parents who have lost a child experience being part of an online course in therapeutic writing? What are the perceived benefits and challenges of writing in processing their grief? We followed an existential phenomenological approach and analyzed fieldwork notes (n = 13), qualitative data from the application and assessment surveys (n = 35; n = 21), excerpts from the journals of some participants (n = 3), and email correspondence with some participants (n = 5). We categorized the results in three meaning units: (1) where does my story begin? The “both and” of their silent chaos; (2) standing on the middle line: a pregnancy that does not end; (3) closures and openings: “careful optimism” and the need for community support. Participants experienced writing as an opportunity for self-exploration regarding their identities and their emotional world, as well as a means to develop and strengthen a bond with their children. They also experienced a sense of belonging, validation, and acceptance in the online group in a way that helped them make sense of their suffering. Online writing courses could be of benefit for bereaved parents who are grieving the unexpected death of a child, but do not replace other interventions such as psychotherapy. In addition to trauma and attachment informed models of grief, identity informed models with a developmental focus might enhance the impact of both low-threshold community interventions and more intensive clinical ones. Further studies and theoretical development in the area are needed, addressing dialogical notions such as the multivoicedness of the self. Lehmann OV, Neimeyer RA, Thimm J, Hjeltnes A, Lengelle R and Kalstad TG (2022) Experiences of Norwegian Mothers Attending an Online Course of Therapeutic Writing Following the Unexpected Death of a Child. Front. Psychol. 12:809848. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.809848
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