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  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 4
    Citation - Scopus: 8
    Remote Rf Laboratory Requirements: Engineers' and Technicians' Perspective
    (Anadolu Univ, 2007) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Aydin, Elif Uray; Kara, Ali; Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering; Software Engineering
    This 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.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 22
    Citation - Scopus: 34
    An Analysis of Course Characteristics, Learner Characteristics, and Certification Rates in MITx MOOCs
    (Athabasca Univ Press, 2020) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Cagiltay, Kursat; Celik, Berkan; Software Engineering
    Massive 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: 12
    Citation - Scopus: 17
    Students' Preferences on Web-Based Instruction: Linear or Non-Linear
    (int Forum Educational Technology & Soc-ifets, 2006) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Yildirim, Soner; Aksu, Meral; Software Engineering
    This paper reports the findings of a study conducted on a foreign language course at a large mid- west university in the USA. In the study a web- based tool which supports both linear and non- linear learning environments was designed and developed for this course. The aim of this study was to find out students' preferences pertaining to the learning environment and to address the factors affecting their preferences. The results of this study showed that the individual characteristics of the students affected their preferences on the learning path ( linear or non- linear).