Kursat Cagiltay

This study aims to analyze the digital transformation process of the Faculty of Education (FoE) at TED University through an action research approach within a single case study framework. It presents the initiatives, implementations, and institutional changes carried out over the first 18 months following the launch of a transformation process guided by learning engineering (LE) principles. As the transformation is still ongoing, this paper reports the progress achieved to date and the lessons learned throughout the process. The transformation began with the identification of a central institutional challenge, followed by a comprehensive needs analysis. Subsequently, focus group interviews were conducted with the primary FoE stakeholders, and based on those findings, an LE approach was adopted by the FoE as a guiding framework for its curriculum. Accordingly, professional development seminars have been conducted for faculty members, courses have been revised, and new foundational LE courses have been designed and implemented for two consecutive semesters. As the application of LE to transform the FoE continues, this study aims to provide information about the lessons learned over the span of these 18 months.

The impact of educational e-textiles on student outcomes in STEAM education programs is a growing area of interest. Despite the potential of e-textile projects to enhance STEAM education, their effect on K-12 teachers’ professional development remains underexplored. This study investigates middle school teachers’ perceptions of their experiences with wearable e-textile-supported STEAM projects, their ability to translate those experiences into classroom practices, and their attitudes toward integrating these projects into the curriculum. Mixed-methods research with a convergent design was employed in two e-textile-supported STEAM teacher training camps, involving 20 and 19 in-service science teachers, respectively. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using post-intervention surveys, semi-structured interviews, and a follow-up survey. The findings revealed that the program increased teachers’ confidence in STEAM project design, fostered creativity and interdisciplinary learning, and improved STEAM knowledge and skills. In addition, teachers reported being well-equipped to integrate the learned practices in their classrooms, with a positive shift in their attitudes toward integrating such interdisciplinary approaches into the curriculum. The findings also revealed high teacher satisfaction with the program and a sustained interest in STEAM practices. This research provides valuable insights for future efforts to support the adoption of e-textiles in STEAM science classrooms by highlighting their role in teacher professional development.

Location-based games (LBG) incorporate players’ location as their main game element. Therefore, they are played in the physical world by turning every place into a playground. Due to the pervasive nature of LBGs, usability evaluation can differ from the other game genres. This study aims to develop an LBG based on a university campus by implementing a criteria-based method to populate the map and distribute points of interest. Ten participants tested the developed game, and a qualitative analysis was conducted via holding interviews with each participant to evaluate the game’s usability and identify usability issues specific to the developed LBG and LBGs in general. The findings show that participants showed a positive attitude towards the game; however, multiple issues were identified regarding the LBGs. These usability issues are the inaccuracy of the map in representing the points, the radius of interaction, and location update delay.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become increasingly popular as a means of delivering education on a global scale. However, comparative analyses across different contexts remain limited. To enhance the effectiveness and inclusivity of MOOCs, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of course characteristics and learner behaviors in varied educational and cultural settings. This descriptive study compares two distinct MOOC platforms: MITx, a large academic initiative from the United States, and Bilgeİş, a smaller professional development platform from Turkey. The aim is to explore how MOOCs contribute to educational equity, access, and opportunity. The analysis draws on descriptive statistics from 122 MITx courses (with 2.8 million learners) and 100 Bilgeİş courses (with 100,000 learners), focusing on course topics, difficulty levels, and learner demographics such as age, gender, and education level. Findings reveal persistent inequalities in learner participation, particularly by gender and educational background. As MOOCs mature, they appear to attract a broader range of learners, including individuals with lower levels of formal education and older age groups. This trend highlights the potential of MOOCs to serve as inclusive learning environments that support lifelong learning and workforce development. The study underscores the need for standardized metadata frameworks to enable more consistent cross-platform comparisons and recommends regular evaluations to help providers tailor course design and content distribution in ways that promote equitable educational access.

In mathematics education, representations are used in place of mathematical structures, ideas, or relationships to concretize, transform, and represent them. When students interact with these representations, they engage in various cognitive activities such as thinking, reasoning, understanding, remembering, problem-solving, attention, and decision-making, which are difficult to observe. Therefore, uncovering these cognitive activities is very significant for mathematics education. However, they are not easy to uncover as they cannot be directly observed. Eye tracking is an important approach that can be used to reveal cognitive activities that cannot be directly observed. This study investigated how middle school students examine representations by examining their eye movements. Eighty-five (40 girls and 45 boys) 7th-grade middle school students participated in the study. In the study, gaze durations, fixation count, and fixation duration on four different representation types: verbal representation, symbolic representation, number line representation, and counters representation were compared. The findings showed that students fixated more on the verbal representation and gazed at it for longer. However, fixation durations on the verbal representation were quite short compared to the other representations. In contrast, when examining the counters, there were fewer fixations and shorter gaze durations, but fixation durations were longer. Gazes on the number line and symbolic representation did not differ across all three variables. The findings indicated that gaze on verbal and non-verbal representations differed to some extent, but not entirely. Finally, the findings are discussed in the context of mathematical representation and eye-tracking literature.

Literatürde öğretim yöntem ve teknik bilgisinin öğretmenlerin mesleki repertuarında önemli bir yer tuttuğu ve etkili bir öğretim için geniş bir repertuar gerekliliği vurgulanmaktadır. Bu çalışma, öğretmenlerin öğretim yöntem ve teknikleri tercihlerinin branşlara göre nasıl şekillendiğini inceleyerek, öğretmenlerin bu yöntem ve tekniklerin öğrenildiği lisans düzeyinde aldıkları öğretim yöntem ve teknikleri eğitimine yönelik görüşlerini ve bu tür bir eğitime ihtiyaç duyma durumlarını tespit etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Araştırma yöntemi olarak betimsel bir araştırma benimsenmiş ve katılımcılar Dijital Öğretmenler Projesi kapsamında düzenlenen eğitimlere katılan 965 ilkokul ve ortaokul öğretmenlerinden oluşmuştur. Veri toplama aracı olarak sunum hazırlama ödevi ve anket formu kullanılmıştır. Katılımcıların hazırladığı sunumlar ve anket cevapları betimsel istatistikler ve içerik analizi kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Öğretmenlerin sunum hazırlamayı tercih ettikleri yöntem ve teknikler arasında sıklıkla altı şapkalı düşünme, beyin fırtınası, problem çözme ve drama gibi geleneksel yöntem ve tekniklerin ön planda olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bunun yanı sıra, çalışma sonucunda öğretmenlerin yarısından fazlası lisans düzeyinden verilen öğretim yöntem ve teknikleri eğitimini yeterli bulmadıkları ifade etmişlerdir. Araştırmanın bulguları, öğretmenlerin öğretim yöntem ve tekniklerine ilişkin mesleki ihtiyaçlarının ve beklentilerinin anlaşılması açısından önemli bir katkı sağlamaktadır.