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Alejandra J. Magana - IEEE Xplore Author Profile

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Researchers have provided insights into using virtual reality (VR) for visualization and interaction with 3D models and simulations. The interaction allows users to manipulate the 3D elements and visualize changes based on their inputs from movement with controllers or spatial actions. However, some users may find this interaction overwhelming, especially when immersed in a virtual environment. Ad...Show More
Immersive virtual reality (IVR) is widely recognized as an innovative technology that enhances learning experiences. IVR affordances could serve as a learning medium, and instructors and designers should consider using available tools to teach practical STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects, incorporating the latest practices and recommendations. Due to innovations in v...Show More
Fostering productive engagement within teams has been found to improve student learning outcomes. Consequently, characterizing productive and unproductive time during teamwork sessions is a critical preliminary step to increase engagement in teamwork meetings. However, research from the cognitive sciences has mainly focused on characterizing levels of productive engagement. Thus, the theoretical c...Show More
This work in progress paper presents and motivates the design of a novel extended reality (XR) environment for artificial intelligence (AI) education, and presents its first implementation. The learner is seated at a table and wears an XR headset that allows them to see both the real world and a visualization of a neural network. The visualization is adjustable. The learner can inspect each layer,...Show More
Contribution: The study characterizes aspects of cognitive and metacognitive dimensions of team cognition of software development teams in educational settings. Background: The software development industry requires software engineers and developers to work in teams; for this, there is substantial research on teamwork in the context of the organization. However, little is known about it in the con...Show More
This study implemented transformative pedagogy as a reflective approach to promote intercultural self-awareness and its potential consequences in the context of teamwork. The context was a second-year systems analysis and design course with 118 students in the fall 2021 semester and 155 students in the spring 2022 semester. The research question was: What are students' beliefs regarding their own ...Show More
Technology and automation have become increasingly critical for organizations today, and programming has become an essential skill for all STEM majors to meet this demand. Graduates are expected to possess programming skills to meet the needs of the modern workforce. Acquiring programming skills is a challenging task, and institutions often struggle to provide adequate resources to meet the indust...Show More
This paper proposes a dynamic Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) matrix-based taxonomy for the Industry 4.0 workforce. The study methodology consisted firstly of identifying the KSAs through a literature review and secondly of a KSA relevance analysis using information from World Economic Forum (WEF) global reports and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Finally, ...Show More
This work-in-progress paper will explore the effectiveness of topic modeling to support the analysis of Colombian teachers' conceptions of computational thinking (in Spanish) in an online professional development program. Computational thinking has become a form of literacy as it can help individuals to solve problems. Consequently, governments and bodies of accreditation worldwide have supported ...Show More
The ICAP framework classifies learning into four levels based on students' cognitive engagement with the course materials. These levels are Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive. The built-in hypothesis within the framework suggests that Interactive activities may generate better learning and engagement than Constructive activities, which may generate better outcomes than Active activitie...Show More
This research paper investigates the effectiveness of cooperative learning and co-regulation strategies in promoting teamwork and enhancing students' performance in higher education. The study was conducted in an in-person intermediate-level information system design course with 152 students divided into 31 teams. The students utilized the Scrum framework to manage a semester-long project with thr...Show More
This study aims to explore the team coordination commitments reported by undergraduate students pursuing biomedical and agricultural engineering majors after completing three team-based computational modeling assignments throughout the course of a semester. In each post-assignment reflection, the teams were asked to reflect on what aspects could be done better for the next project in terms of team...Show More
Background: Questions surrounding the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) have been debated for decades [1]. However, in recent years there have been multiple initiatives, scholarly reviews, and policy documents to identify and define ethical issues in play [2]. The efforts to bring high-level principles to applicable practice are complex and can be lost in translation [3]. Moreover, a call to ...Show More
This research project aimed to investigate the effect of a virtual reality (VR) environment and tactile feedback on students' con-ceptual understanding of electromagnetism. In our developed ap-plication, we simulated the physics concept of electromagnetism through charged particles and their interaction through field lines and isosurfaces in 3D. We divided interactions with virtual particles into ...Show More
Commitment is a multi-dimensional construct that has been extensively researched in the context of organizations. Organizational and professional commitment have been positively associated with technical performance, client service, attention to detail, and degree of involvement with one’s job. However, there is a relative dearth of research in terms of team commitment, especially in educational s...Show More
The entrepreneurial mindset is defined as the inclination to discover, evaluate, and exploit opportunities. One approach to developing the entrepreneurial mindset is through evidence-based decision-making, which has the potential to lower costs, improve quality of life, and even save lives by understanding learning patterns and trends related to data, in general, and big data, specifically. As a r...Show More
We investigated whether an intelligent tutoring system, ElectronixTutor, improved students' types of knowledge, including conceptual learning, problem-solving, and model building in the domain of electronic circuits. Specific research questions were (1) Can students improve their deep learning through interacting with ElectronixTutor through conceptual learning, problem-solving, and model b...Show More
This Research to practice work in progress paper explores teachers' experiences about a professional development program focused on discipline-based computational thinking (CT). The goal of the program is to integrate computational practices into disciplinary learning environments at the K-12 level in Colombia. To promote this integration and to explore teachers' conceptions and possible scenarios...Show More
This full research paper looks at data science, which is an increasingly important topic of interest across all academic disciplines and industry sectors. As such, the need for curricula and learning designs for teaching data science has never been greater. One increasingly useful institutional initiative for building critical skills is living learning communities. This study reports on a data sci...Show More
Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) have shown to be useful learning aids for helping students learn STEM subjects. Previous studies on ITS tend to focus on developmental aspects of the system, such as system design, programming architecture, and dialogue moves. In this systemic literature review, we focus on pedagogical aspects of ITS within STEM domains. Specifically, we identified the implemente...Show More
This study investigates the relationship between two related computational thinking practices: data practices and computational problem-solving practices in acquiring related computational thinking practices during a first-year undergraduate engineering course. While computational thinking theory is still developing, empirical studies can help further understand how students demonstrate this knowl...Show More
This Innovative Practice Full Paper details a design-based research approach for implementing computational learning activities in a first-year engineering physics course. This study contributes to the growing body of research on computation in engineering education by introducing computational concepts and activities during a physics laboratory class. Drawing from Experiential Learning Theory and...Show More
This Research to Practice Full Paper explores students' self-explanations in the context of programming. Specifically, this paper explores the use of in-code comments as an approach to support students' learning process and development of abstraction skills in an introductory programming course at the undergraduate level. Computer programming is a difficult skill to learn by novices due to the com...Show More
This paper proposes a special session on the use of computational methods for analyzing educational data. Computation has permeated all disciplines because it provides unique opportunities to represent knowledge and understand complex phenomena. In education, disciplines such as learning analytics and educational data mining have emerged to better understand educational phenomena. This special ses...Show More
In this Work In Progress in the Research Category we present a qualitative study that explores how computing instruction experiences may mediate the progression of social and cognitive factors associated with career development in community college engineering students. The rapidly evolving technological landscape has created an increased need for an engineering workforce with computing skills. Tr...Show More