Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    AN EXAMINATION OF THE IMPACT OF COMPUTER-BASED ANIMATIONS AND VISUALIZATION SEQUENCE ON LEARNERS' UNDERSTANDING OF HADLEY CELLS IN ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
    (2012) Harris, Daniel; Holliday, William G.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Research examining animation use for student learning has been conducted in the last two decades across a multitude of instructional environments and content areas. The extensive construction and implementation of animations in learning resulted from the availability of powerful computing systems and the perceived advantages the novel medium offered to deliver dynamic representations of complex systems beyond the human perceptual scale. Animations replaced or supplemented text and static diagrams of system functioning and were predicted to significantly improve learners' conceptual understanding of target systems. However, subsequent research has not consistently discovered affordances to understanding, and in some cases, has actually shown that animation use is detrimental to system understanding especially for content area novices (Lowe 2004; Mayer et al. 2005). This study sought to determine whether animation inclusion in an authentic learning context improved student understanding for an introductory earth science concept, Hadley Cell circulation. In addition, the study sought to determine whether the timing of animation examination improved conceptual understanding. A quasi-experimental pretest posttest design administered in an undergraduate science lecture and laboratory course compared four different learning conditions: text and static diagrams with no animation use, animation use prior to the examination of text and static diagrams, animation use following the examination of text and static diagrams, and animation use during the examination of text and static diagrams. Additionally, procedural data for a sample of three students in each condition were recorded and analyzed through the lens of self regulated learning (SRL) behaviors. The aim was to determine whether qualitative differences existed between cognitive processes employed. Results indicated that animation use did not improve understanding across all conditions. However learners able to employ animations while reading and examining the static diagrams and to a lesser extent, after reading the system description, showed evidence of higher levels of system understanding on posttest assessments. Procedural data found few differences between groups with one exception---learners given access to animations during the learning episode chose to examine and coordinate the representations more frequently. These results indicated a new finding from the use of animation, a sequence effect to improve understanding of Hadley Cells in atmospheric circulation.
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    Imaging Computerization: Scripting and Animation as Process and Product
    (2008-06-12) Lostritto, Carl; Ambrose, Michael A; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Computation as both method and aesthetic is applied to the architectural design process at multiple scales. This enables complex, performative, and specific solutions uniquely relevant to emerging models for fabrication and construction. Formal and spatial manipulation of architectural envelope, skin, volume and structure occurs indirectly via the design of geometric algorithms. Relationships are both amplified and collapsed together in the manifestation of the design for NASA administrative headquarters in Washington, DC. Process and product merge to create a language of effects. Animation methodology represents parametric relationships while reflecting the realties of perception of time and space. Usage requirements and site conditions are fuel for the inherently cyclical process. NASA's shifting mission, agenda and values are branded non-verbally through the expression and explicit exploitation of both glaringly broad and obscurely minute requirements that through the medium by which they are applied have additional meaning.