Community Groups Help Students Prepare For CPS E Learning

As Chicago Public School (CPS) E-Learning launches Monday, community groups are providing the resources students require. Tamar Manasseh works with an organization that assists low-income families in preparing for remote learning.

Past studies demonstrated that female junior high school students excelled more than their male counterparts at collaborative tasks that involved human partners.

Problem-Solving Skills

People must collaborate in everyday work and life in order to solve complex interdisciplinary issues with limited information caused by factors like environmental and economic climate changes. Therefore, learning how to work well with others is an integral skill needed for success in society.

Prior research has demonstrated that students often struggle to cooperate in CPS tasks due to different learning styles, communication difficulties, and time requirements for analyzing information. Some learners also struggle with adapting to the dynamic nature of CPS tasks. Thus, it is necessary to devise a model which can assist students in improving their performance in CPS environments.

This study sought to assess the effect of different communication and interaction methods on students’ problem-solving abilities. For this purpose, an application was created that used computer agents with Web technology as agents to train and evaluate the CPS skills of learners. This application consisted of three elements: task elements, problem scenarios, and team building – with eight problem scripts related to sustainability as task elements; problem scenarios asked learners to analyze strategies provided by computer agents, while team building required them to develop plans to complete specific tasks.

In order to assess the effects of these variables, pre and post-task knowledge tests and an instrument designed to measure participants’ CPS were administered, as well as EEG data collection during the task to gauge the cognitive load of participants. Finally, qualitative evaluations were gathered using a program performance questionnaire.

The findings of this study revealed that HCA interaction enhanced students’ abilities to communicate and cooperate in CPS tasks while decreasing cognitive load, suggesting it is an effective method for training and assessing CPS skills in VL. In particular, verbal global reflective learners performed better than visual sequential active learners when engaging in HCA interactions; its use also increases learners’ acceptance of its application and motivation to use it.

Communication Skills

Communication skills are an integral component of an online learning environment, especially for students in CPS e-learning programs. Students must be able to share ideas and collaborate effectively in order to solve problems; furthermore, they need to express themselves clearly so other people understand them. Therefore, program designers should pay particular attention to communication abilities when designing CPS e-learning programs.

We aimed to design a CPS e-learning application that enabled learners to collaborate with computer agents by developing a cooperative problem-solving model and comparing human-human (HH) and human-computer agent (HCA) collaborative interactions (CIs). Results revealed that HCA interaction was more successful than its HH counterpart; additionally, we evaluated learner characteristics on these interactions; students with verbal, global, and reflective learning styles performed better using HCA than those with visual, sequential, or active types of learning.

Students enrolled in CPS e-learning courses may register through their guidance counselor during regular enrollment timelines for their desired period and have access to additional resources on its website. It should be noted, however, that not all CPS courses can be taken via e-learning – some require in-person instruction or have enrollment restrictions in place.

Chicago Public Schools began providing computers to students affected by the coronavirus outbreak on April 13. This includes laptops and tablets being distributed to more than 100,000 high school and middle school students – including temporary living situations, special needs students, English learners, and those taking Advanced Placement or dual credit courses that require online learning.

Community groups are providing crucial support for students as they transition into online learning. Some have used shipping containers as classrooms where tutoring sessions for low-income families take place. Students are being encouraged to enroll in e-learning courses concurrently with registration for other classes; grades will reflect participation in online learning activities, with teachers monitoring student progress along the way.

Teamwork Skills

Solving complex interdisciplinary problems requires people to work cooperatively and use various information collection strategies. Problem-solving abilities such as these are necessary in today’s society and for overcoming daily life issues or long-term challenges, yet research on the efficacy of e-learning for developing teamwork skills has produced conflicting findings; some studies found it beneficial while others have revealed it does not improve students’ abilities to solve such complex interdisciplinary issues.

This study involved creating a computerized problem-solving learning application to promote problem-solving skills among learners. The application included eight problem scripts (fastening shelves, using a microwave, placing water, organizing a room, traveling, buying a phone, and building a home) designed to foster communication among learners, while an interactive platform allowed learners to engage with computer agents and present vital information regarding issues.

Results demonstrated that CPS learning applications enhanced student performance compared to traditional classroom teaching. Furthermore, when designing CPS learning applications, it’s crucial to take into account students’ interaction styles as this could impact performance and motivation; indeed, students with active/reflective orientations rated it more positively than those using HCA interaction methods.

Lives in the Balance offers 15-week proficiency training designed to assist educators, school administrators, and corporate bodies with implementing the CPS model. Sessions are held via Zoom video conferencing software and include weekly one-hour group coaching and feedback. These short trainings are ideal for schools and organizations wanting to implement CPS but don’t have time to dedicate more intensive certification training; each session is limited to six participants, so each can receive personalized coaching and feedback.

Decision-Making Skills

Life and work often present people with complex problems they cannot solve on their own, necessitating cooperation among individuals in solving them – an ability that can be improved through online CPS. Such cooperation includes communication, collaboration, and decision-making – three skills developed via cooperative online CPS interactions, such as those between human-computer agent (HCA) interactions and human-human interactions (HH). This study seeks to investigate these effects while aiding educators in developing more effective training programs for cooperative learning.

A study was conducted with novice computer science students participating in an online virtual laboratory (VL). Participants engaged in various tasks requiring cognitive processing speed (CPS), completed knowledge tests before and after EEG data collection for measuring cognitive load during VL sessions, and investigated relationships between their performance and CPS abilities.

Results indicated that HCA interactions had a positive impact on students’ cognitive performance skills (CPS). On the other hand, human-human (HH) interactions did not have as significant an effect, perhaps due to difficulty cooperating with human beings as opposed to computer agents. Thus, this indicates that using either HCA versus HH interactions requires careful evaluation and modification for optimal CPS outcomes.

This study’s findings echo previous studies that have linked learning styles with student performance in online CPS. Sequential learners tend to use linear, step-by-step paths when solving problems while global learners tend to make decisions with an holistic perspective. Additionally, this research indicates that social and cognitive CPS skills play a role in an individual student’s ability to collaborate successfully – although more work needs to be done regarding gender as an element in this relationship.