The impact of student's digital competence on project-based learning results in computer-supported environment

摘要

In this master thesis, we are examining how different factors are impacting the results of the project-based learning in a computer-supported environment. We are analysing the theoretical foundations of project-based learning. Students are producing digital stories within the context of project work. Factors that are impacting the results of teamwork are determined according to Webb's system of interaction within collaborative learning groups. The interaction between members has a crucial influence on the final product of the group. Characteristics of the individual student, such as knowledge, skills, personality traits, characteristics of the group, and external motivation, could impact interaction. Our focus is on the impact of digital competence of students on the results of the project work within which the student is involved. We are assessing the digital competence of an individual. Digital competence is defined and determined within three dimensions: technological, cognitive, and ethical dimension. We have designed and introduced a measuring instrument for determining the level of achievement of student's digital competence. We are assessing the a level of achievement of student's digital competence amongst first-year students of the Faculty of Education within courses of Elementary Education, Art Education and Two-subject teacher program of Computer science. We are trying to determine which dimension of the digital competence has the greatest impact on the level of achievement of digital competence. We are illustrating the activity of the project-based learning and criteria for the evaluation of digital stories. The activity was realised as project work of first-year students of Elementary Education at the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana within the course Information and Communication Technologies in Education. We are trying to assess how does the level of achievement of student's digital competence and its dimensions impact the results of teamwork in a computer-supported environment. We are modelling the interaction of the personality traits and interpersonal competencies' factors that have an impact on the classification degree of the individual students within the project work in a computer-supported environment. According to the criteria of assessment of the student's contribution to teamwork we are searching for combinations of factors or interacting characteristics of the student within a group that have an impact on the final grade. In our sample, we research how certain personality characteristics of a student, such as student learning style and attitudes toward collaboratve learning, impact the results of project work. The models that are interpreting the interaction of factors and characteristics are constructed by machine learning methods.