How Engineering will Affect Learning Environment

Javokhir Radjabov

CCNY

ENGL 21007 E2

Professor Elizabeth Von Uhl

03/21/2022

Rhetorical Analysis

This assignment will contain the writings of several different lab reports such as an algorithm being introduced into different methods of teaching, introducing a new paradigm in studying, and the effects of block-based programming languages (BBL) across three teaching groups: hybrid, non-hybrid, and no BBL. The article “An Experimental and Algorithm Research on the Influence of OTO Teaching Mode on College Students’ PE Learning Interest Based on Cloud Computing” discusses an algorithm that calculates the outcomes for activity by Shijun Wu, Jianghong Dai, and Jiujiu Yang. Another article “Do Gender or Major Influence the Performance in Programming Learning? Teaching Mode Decision Based on Exercise Series Analysis” talks about the introduction of a new paradigm into studying by Gao Z, Zhang Y, Zhang R, Sun X, and Feng J. The last article, “Hybrid and Non-Hybrid Block-Based Programming Languages in an Introductory College Computer-Science Course” by Wen-Chin Hsu and Julie Gainsburg,  introduces BBL for different categories such as hybrid, non-hybrid, and no BBL. These articles all corroborate their results in a meaningful way but the article by Hsu and Gainsburg is more clear due to its use of language flow, proper structure, and data usage.

Proper language is needed for understanding anything that is written. The lab report by Shijun Wu, Jianghong Dai, and Jiujiu Yang presents an OTO (online and offline) teaching mode which goes in-depth about the effects of online and offline methods. The language throughout the lab analysis is very easy to understand and follow. However, Shijun, Jianghong, and Jiujiu lost me when it came to the scaling method called  “College Student Sports Learning Interest Evaluation Scale” compiled by Gu Haiyong and Jie Chao. This section contains sentences that do not make sense unless you already have experience in the field, such as, “T positivity = −2.473,  P < 0.05; T negativity = 3.209,  P < 0.007; T skill learning = 2.786,  P < 0.05; T extracurricular activities = 2.934,  P < 0.01; T sports attention = 1.119,  P > 0.05. See Table 4 for details” (Wu et al., 2021). According to the authors, these results mean the OTO teaching method is effective in increasing students’ interest in learning sports but has little effect on the attention side. However, the average reader would not be able to grasp this message without extensive care for this topic. This means that the audience for this article needs background knowledge on high levels of mathematics to fully understand the report. The article about a new paradigm being introduced into studying by Gao Z, Zhang Y, Zhang R, Sun X, and Feng J. This article presents research on whether the gender of students affects their attributes, learning behavior, and learning behavior using generalized estimating equations (GEE). It is fairly comprehensible in its introduction and experimental setup. But, the language gets harder to understand during step 2.3 when Gao and the other authors are trying to explain the functions of the GEE to compute data analysis on how students are going to perform based on gender, major, basis, and time spent on learning the materials. Z et al. (2022) note that “AT and CT are numeric variables and time-varying, and time is nominal variable and time-varying.  β1,β2,β3,β4measure the respective effect of gender, major, basis, and time on learning performance, and  β5,β6,β7 measure the cross effect with time”. This shows that Gao and all the other authors are using these variables where they input the values into the GEE which, when imputed, looks like rocket science. This article also shows the audiences need to understand a high level of mathematics in order to understand the computations in this article. The last article presents hybrid and non-hybrid BBL by Wen-Chin Hsu and Julie Gainsburg. This article talks about students being discouraged by their poor performances and the introduction of these BBL. Wen-Chin and Julie get in-depth when talking about introducing a CS0 course which is a computer science orientation instead of the usual CS1 course which is the standard first-year computer science course. “While students who learned a BBL found it easier to learn than Java, they found learning Java more difficult than did the students who had learned Java from the start of the course” (Hsu & Gainsburg, 2021). Wen-Chin and Julie argue the effects of BBL which are very straightforward and very easy to understand. This shows that the report is for an audience of everyday article readers and the reader does not need any extra background knowledge to understand the writing. Consequently, proper language is needed for understanding anything that is written. The article, “An Experimental and Algorithm … Based on Cloud Computing” uses equations in the middle of the paragraph which can throw off a person’s flow while reading the article if they were just reading to pass time. So, this article feels targeted toward people with higher education. The article “Do Gender or Major Influence … Based on Exercise Series Analysis” gives simple variables for use in the GEE, however, it becomes difficult to understand as it progresses. This is also targeted at people with higher education. The last article “Hybrid and Non-Hybrid  Block-Based … Computer-Science Course” is easy to follow and comprehend. This article is not targeted at any specific group but is informational that anyone can understand.

Looking back, the articles are all structured very well. The articles are all structured to keep the reader’s mind about the topic and stay focused. The article, “An Experimental and Algorithm …Based on Cloud Computing” is structured like an average lab report. It contains a title, abstract, introduction, method and materials, results, discussion, conclusion, and references. The article is fairly simple to follow because it is going from step to step in chronological order. It gives a clear title; the abstract is very straightforward; the introduction presents; the method and the materials show the process; the results are provided before and after the experiment; the discussion provides more in-depth details about the results; the conclusion is summed up the experiment. The next article about whether, “Do Gender or Major Influence … Based on Exercise Series Analysis” is also structured very well. This article contains a title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and references. The title gives a clear objective; the abstract discusses what is going to happen and the purpose; the introduction is an extension of the abstract; materials and methods discuss the process and the steps; the result section gives an explanation for the tables; the discussion talks about the tables results, and the conclusion gives an honest pretext of the experiment. Finally, the article, “Hybrid and Non-Hybrid Block-Based … Computer-Science Course” is also structured well. This article contains a title, and abstract, although not specified – introduction, literature review, method, results, discussion, and conclusion. The title is a may confuse readers but the abstract gives light to this information; the abstract gives an explanation of what block-based programming language is going to be used; the not so well presented introduction talks about the issue that students have a hard time grasping information when going straight to first-year CS courses without background knowledge and explains how BBL is going to be helpful; the literature review gives a lot of background knowledge on the BBL which is helpful to those that do not understand the process; the method talks about the procedures and the conditions which are very easy to grasp and follow-through; the results section gives a table which is a little difficult but the explanation gives some explanation, and the discussion and conclusion reviews the results and is very straightforward.

Data usage provides a better understanding for a reader than a long paragraph. Looking at data sets, the only article that had my attention was the BBL article because from the get-go, I could understand it just by looking at the variables of the tables. I either did not understand the other lab reports’ tables, did not grasp enough information about them or still do not have enough background information on the tables. The OTO lab report provided multiple tables throughout the reading which might be for a show because it does not really explain the analysis. Also, Shijun, Jianghong, and Jiujiu could not provide a dataset of the final analysis which does not help their credibility. Then, we have the article “Do Gender or Major Influence … Based on Exercise Series Analysis”. The tables provided are difficult to understand and are not very well presented, but the explanation sums up the analysis for the tables. Most people would prefer an easy and understandable table rather than reading about the table for the next page and a half. Finally, we have the article “Hybrid and Non-Hybrid Block-Based … Computer-Science Course”. The tables provided are very easy to grasp and give easy variables so that readers can understand. The tables are presented so the average reader can follow the research. To summarize, in the reports “An Experimental and Algorithm …Based on Cloud Computing” and “Do Gender or Major Influence … Based on Exercise Series Analysis”, in both I had to go back to check the table and the explanation multiple times which I still could not grasp. While the article “Hybrid and Non-Hybrid Block-Based … Computer-Science Course”, the tables presented were very straightforward and easy to understand.

So, the articles all use proper language, proper structure, and data usage for their intended audiences. What I mean by the intended audience is because the articles “An Experimental and Algorithm …Based on Cloud Computing” and “Do Gender or Major Influence … Based on Exercise Series Analysis” were a little difficult. They are meant for people in similar case studies where they compute with high-level arithmetics. The best article would be the article “Hybrid and Non-Hybrid Block-Based … Computer-Science Course” because all the languages used are understood, the structure used follows a conventional method, and data usage is very understandable.

Works Cited

Gao, Z., Zhang, Y., Zhang, R., Sun, X., & Feng, J. (2022). Do Gender or Major Influence the Performance in Programming Learning? Teaching Mode Decision Based on Exercise Series Analysis. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2022, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/7450669

Hsu, W. C., & Gainsburg, J. (2021). Hybrid and Non-Hybrid Block-Based Programming Languages in an Introductory College Computer-Science Course. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 59(5), 817–843. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633120985108

Wu, S., Dai, J., & Yang, J. (2021). An Experimental and Algorithm Research on the Influence of OTO Teaching Mode on College Students’ PE Learning Interest Based on Cloud Computing. Scientific Programming, 2021, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/2042158