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Article Citation - WoS: 137Citation - Scopus: 187Improving Programming Skills in Engineering Education Through Problem-Based Game Projects With Scratch(Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd, 2018) Topalli, Damla; Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilNowadays, programming skills are receiving widespread attention for different age groups alongside occupational education programs to better prepare individuals for their future careers. However, introducing programming concepts in an appropriate manner is a challenge in higher education. The main assumption of this study is that enhancing the classical introduction to programming courses through real-life problem-based game development with Scratch programming environment potentially improves the learners' programming skills and motivation. Accordingly, in this study, during one academic semester period, the Introduction to Programming course for engineering students is enriched up to a certain level through real-life game development projects with Scratch. The students are followed within a four-year period starting from freshman until their graduation. The progress of the students who have taken the Introduction to Programming course in enriched or classical form in the fourth year Senior-project course are evaluated. The results show that by slightly improving the course curriculum through real-life game development projects in the Scratch environment, students' performance on the graduation projects improved significantly. As a conclusion, game-based learning, problem-based learning, visual programming and projects are technologies that can potentially help learners to perform better in the introduction to programming course, in turn affecting their performances in projects.Article Citation - WoS: 70Citation - Scopus: 82The Effect of Uncertainty on Learning in Game-Like Environments(Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd, 2013) Ozcelik, Erol; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Ozcelik, Nese SahinConsidering the role of games for educational purposes, there has an increase in interest among educators in applying strategies used in popular games to create more engaging learning environments. Learning is more fun and appealing in digital educational games and, as a result, it may become more effective. However, few research studies have been conducted to establish principles based on empirical research for designing engaging and entertaining games so as to improve learning. One of the essential characteristics of games that has been unexplored in the literature is the concept of uncertainty. This study examines the effect of uncertainty on learning outcomes. In order to better understand this effect on learning, a game-like learning tool was developed to teach a database concept in higher education programs of software engineering. The tool is designed in two versions: one including uncertainty and the other including no uncertainty. The experimental results of this study reveal that uncertainty enhances learning. Uncertainty is found to be positively associated with motivation. As motivation increases, participants tend to spend more time on answering the questions and to have higher accuracy in these questions. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Article Citation - WoS: 3Citation - Scopus: 3Expectancy From, and Acceptance of Augmented Reality in Dental Education Programs: a Structural Equation Model(Wiley, 2024) Toker, Sacip; Akay, Canan; Basmaci, Fulya; Kilicarslan, Mehmet Ali; Mumcu, Emre; Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilObjectiveDental schools need hands-on training and feedback. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies enable remote work and training. Education programs only partially integrated these technologies. For better technology integration, infrastructure readiness, prior-knowledge readiness, expectations, and learner attitudes toward AR and VR technologies must be understood together. Thus, this study creates a structural equation model to understand how these factors affect dental students' technology use.MethodsA correlational survey was done. Four questionnaires were sent to 755 dental students from three schools. These participants were convenience-sampled. Surveys were developed using validity tests like explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses, Cronbach's alpha, and composite reliability. Ten primary research hypotheses are tested with path analysis.ResultsA total of 81.22% responded to the survey (755 out of 930). Positive AR attitude, expectancy, and acceptance were endogenous variables. Positive attitudes toward AR were significantly influenced by two exogenous variables: infrastructure readiness (B = 0.359, beta = 0.386, L = 0.305, U = 0.457, p = 0.002) and prior-knowledge readiness (B = -0.056, beta = 0.306, L = 0.305, U = 0.457, p = 0.002). Expectancy from AR was affected by infrastructure, prior knowledge, and positive and negative AR attitudes. Infrastructure, prior-knowledge readiness, and positive attitude toward AR had positive effects on expectancy from AR (B = 0.201, beta = 0.204, L = 0.140, U = 0.267, p = 0.002). Negative attitude had a negative impact (B = -0.056, beta = -0.054, L = 0.091, U = 0.182, p = 0.002). Another exogenous variable was AR acceptance, which was affected by infrastructure, prior-knowledge preparation, positive attitudes, and expectancy. Significant differences were found in infrastructure, prior-knowledge readiness, positive attitude toward AR, and expectancy from AR (B = 0.041, beta = 0.046, L = 0.026, U = 0.086, p = 0.054).ConclusionInfrastructure and prior-knowledge readiness for AR significantly affect positive AR attitudes. Together, these three criteria boost AR's potential. Infrastructure readiness, prior-knowledge readiness, positive attitudes toward AR, and AR expectations all increase AR adoption. The study provides insights that can help instructional system designers, developers, dental education institutions, and program developers better integrate these technologies into dental education programs. Integration can improve dental students' hands-on experience and program performance by providing training options anywhere and anytime.Article Citation - WoS: 24Citation - Scopus: 42Using Learning Styles Theory in Engineering Education(Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2008) Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilStudies have shown that, while learning different concepts, people sometimes take different approaches (learning styles). Accordingly, their performance reflected differently in their academic studies. With the effect of globalisation to the educational environments, the influence of individual learning styles on educational performance is getting more significant. In this study, a learning style assessment tool was used to examine the relationship between students' learning styles and their performance in engineering education programmes. At the beginning of the programme, 285 students' learning styles were measured using a learning style assessment tool. Four years after the engineering education, their performance in the programme was compared with their individual learning styles. This study shows that most of the students are assimilators. Divergers and convergers follow the assimilators. The number of accommodators is very limited. The relationship between engineering students' learning styles and their performance is found: assimilators and convergers performed better than the divergers and accommodators. The performance difference between assimilators and divergers is statistically significant. The results of this study show that the learning style theory is a potential tool for guiding the design and improvement of courses and helping students to improve their individual performance.Article Citation - WoS: 22Citation - Scopus: 36An Analysis of Course Characteristics, Learner Characteristics, and Certification Rates in MITx MOOCs(Athabasca Univ Press, 2020) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Cagiltay, Kursat; Celik, Berkan; Software EngineeringMassive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), capable of providing free (or low cost) courses for millions of learners anytime and anywhere, have gained the attention of researchers, educational institutions, and learners worldwide. Even though they provide several benefits, there are still some criticisms of MOOCs. For instance, MOOCs' high dropout rates or predominantly elite participation are considered to be important problems. In order to develop solutions for these problems, a deeper understanding of MOOCs is required. Today, despite the availability of several research studies about MOOCs, there is a shortage of in-depth research on course characteristics, learner characteristics, and predictors of certification rates. This study examined MOOC and learner characteristics in detail and explored the predictors of course certification rates based on data from 122 Massachusetts Institute of Technology MOOCs (MITx) on edX platform as well as data about the 2.8 million participants registered in these MOOCs. The results indicated that as the number of courses offered and the number of learners enrolled increased in years, there was a decrease in the certification rates among enrolled learners. According to our results, the number of average chapters completed, total forum messages, and mean age predicted course certification rates positively. On the other hand, the total number of chapters in a course predicted the course certification rates negatively. Based on these results, shorter and more interactive MOOCs are recommended by considering the needs of the learners, course content design, and strategies encouraging the enrolled students to enter the courses.Article Citation - WoS: 15Citation - Scopus: 21Software Engineering Education: Some Important Dimensions(Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2007) Mishra, Alok; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Kilic, OzkanSoftware engineering education has been emerging as an independent and mature discipline. Accordingly, various studies are being done to provide guidelines for curriculum design. The main focus of these guidelines is around core and foundation courses. This paper summarizes the current problems of software engineering education programs. It also proposes some important dimensions as integral parts of software engineering education: interdisciplinary skills, practice experience, communication, skills on continuing education and professionalism. In the current guidelines and studies these dimensions are not addressed specifically. Although there could be other dimensions to be considered in software engineering education, we believe that the proposed ones are very crucial as software engineering is evolving more rapidly than any other engineering discipline. This study also provides a survey of some major universities' undergraduate software engineering programs to evaluate these dimensions.Article Citation - WoS: 4Citation - Scopus: 8Remote Rf Laboratory Requirements: Engineers' and Technicians' Perspective(Anadolu Univ, 2007) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Aydin, Elif Uray; Kara, Ali; Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering; Software EngineeringThis study aims to find out requirements and needs to be fulfilled in developing remote Radio Frequency (RF) laboratory. Remote laboratories are newly emerging solutions for better supporting of e-learning platforms and for increasing their efficiency and effectiveness in technical education. By this way, modern universities aim to provide lifelong learning environments to extend their education for a wider area and support learners anytime and anywhere when they need help. However, as far as the authors concern, there is no study investigating the requirements and needs of remote laboratories in that particular field in the literature. This study is based on electrical engineers' and technicians' perspectives on the requirements of a remote laboratory in RF domain. Its scope covers investigation of the participants' perceptions toward computer mediated communication and it attempts to answer the questions: which studying strategies are preferred by the learners and what kind of RF laboratory content should be provided. The analysis of the results showed that, geographic independence, finding quickly the elements of past communication and temporal independence are declared as the most important advantages of computer-mediated communication. However, reading significant amount of information is a problem of these environments. In the context of how to show the content, respondents want to see shorter text on the screen. Therefore the instructions should include little amount of text and must be supported with figures and interactive elements. The instructional materials developed for such learner groups should support both linear and non-linear instructions. While analyzing the content to be provided, we have seen that, most of the participants do not have access to high level equipments and traditional experiments are considered as the necessary ones for both engineers and technicians.Conference Object Citation - WoS: 17Citation - Scopus: 23Maintenance, Sustainability and Extendibility in Virtual and Remote Laboratories(Elsevier Science Bv, 2011) Kara, Ali; Ozbek, Mehmet Efe; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Aydin, ElifThis study presents discussions on sustainability of Virtual and Remote Laboratories (VRL), and provides challenges toward maintenance of VRLs. Technical and pedagogical issues in extension and sustenance of VRLs are discussed with the experiences of the authors gained in the development of a VRL system, European Remote Radio Laboratory (ERRL) platform. Moreover, the study presents actions to be taken in sustenance plan and expendability of VRL system with the advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and educational technologies along with the needs of educators and learners in formal education. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.Article Citation - WoS: 8Citation - Scopus: 10Evaluation of Ten Open-Source Eye-Movement Classification Algorithms in Simulated Surgical Scenarios(Ieee-inst Electrical Electronics Engineers inc, 2019) Dalveren, Gonca Gokce Menekse; Cagiltay, Nergiz ErcilDespite providing several insights into visual attention and evidence regarding certain brain states and psychological functions, classifying eye movements is a highly demanding process. Currently, there are several algorithms to classify eye movement events which use different approaches. However, to date, only a limited number of studies have assessed these algorithms under specific conditions, such as those required for surgical training programmes. This study presents an investigation of ten open-source eye-movement classification algorithms using the Eye Tribe eye-tracker. The algorithms were tested on the eye-movement records obtained from 23 surgical residents, who performed computer-based surgical simulation tasks under different hand conditions. The aim was to offer data for the improvement of surgical training programmes. According to the results, due to the different classification methods and default threshold values, the ten algorithms produced different results. Considering the fixation duration, the only common event for all of the investigated algorithms, the binocular-individual threshold (BIT) algorithm resulted in a different clustering compared to the other algorithms. Based on the other set of common events, three clusters were determined by eight algorithms (except BIT and event detection (ED)), distinguishing dispersion-based, velocity-based and modified versions of velocity-based algorithms. Accordingly, it was concluded that dispersion-based and velocity-based algorithms provided different results. Additionally, as it individually specifies the threshold values for the eye-movement data, when there is no consensus about the threshold values to be set, the BIT algorithm can be selected. Especially for such cases like simulation-based surgical skill-training, the use of individualised threshold values in the BIT algorithm can be more beneficial in classifying the raw eye data and thus evaluating the individual progress levels of trainees based on their eye movement behaviours. In conclusion, the threshold values had a critical effect on the algorithm results. Since default values may not always be suitable for the unique features of different data sets, guidelines should be developed to indicate how the threshold values are set for each algorithm.Article Citation - WoS: 21Citation - Scopus: 26Detecting Latent Topics and Trends in Software Engineering Research Since 1980 Using Probabilistic Topic Modeling(Ieee-inst Electrical Electronics Engineers inc, 2022) Gurcan, Fatih; Dalveren, Gonca Gokce Menekse; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Soylu, AhmetThe landscape of software engineering research has changed significantly from one year to the next in line with industrial needs and trends. Therefore, today's research literature on software engineering has a rich and multidisciplinary content that includes a large number of studies; however, not many of them demonstrate a holistic view of the field. From this perspective, this study aimed to reveal a holistic view that reflects topics, trends, and trajectories in software engineering research by analyzing the majority of domain-specific articles published over the last 40 years. This study first presents an objective and systematic method for corpus creation through major publication sources in the field. A corpus was then created using this method, which includes 44 domain-specific conferences and journals and 57,174 articles published between 1980 and 2019. Next, this corpus was analyzed using an automated text-mining methodology based on a probabilistic topic-modeling approach. As a result of this analysis, 24 main topics were found. In addition, topical trends in the field were revealed. Finally, three main developmental stages of the field were identified as: the programming age, the software development age, and the software optimization age.
