Talk:Education Team/Survey questions

Issues

The primary purpose of the survey is to help Sugar Labs prioritise resources amongst already identified issues and to identify any further needs. It is also an opportunity to gather success stories. Survey results would ideally be translatable into actionable items.

Identified issues include:

The balance between self-directed project-based learning and more traditional or didactic learning. Should resources be directed at generating lesson plans, e-books and instructional materials or towards enriching Activities which offer self-directed problem solving? Are some of these learning styles better supported by other teaching materials eg. chalk board, paper books?

Should the teachers adapt to Sugar or Sugar to the teachers? What obstacles hinder appreciation of the two perspectives and movement together?

Can some materials be better supplied server side in a non-sugar specific way, requiring only a compatible browser? What then should Browse support? Flash, Java, tabbed browsing, auto-complete?

How can the Journal best meet the target of “low entry high ceiling” easy for beginners but no roadblocks for more experienced users? If there has to be a trade off, what are the relative importances of each.

What is the importance of sharing? What are the different sharing mechanisms? Activity sharing, blogs, wikis, upload areas, private/public? How do kids get the most benefit? Share viewing or authorship rights? Share the whole Activity or objects within the activity?

Show source, editing and re-purposing. How realistic is it that students tinker with their Sugar software? How important? What are the benefits? What are the obstacles? How can easy pathways and bridges be supplied?

A different sort of question

• How do children (and teachers) start their day with Sugar? Bright and early, or at a set time every day?
• What Activities do they start with?
• Which Activities do they spend time on in class? in free time? What do they seem to like the most / the least?
• When and where are their computers charging (i.e., Sugar downtime)?
• Are their computers always / sometimes / never, open and in use outside of class time?
• Is anyone left out (i.e. without a computer due to breakage or theft)?
• Are children helping each other when they get stuck on something?
• Are the computers used in the evening?

A slight reworking of the survey

Survey on Educational Strategies using the Sugar Learning Platform

Sugar is the software used in OLPC XO-1, implemented as part of Project Ceibal. Currently, teachers, students and engineers are using, testing and improving the Sugar platform. Thanks to their help we can provide (sharing their successes, discuss their problems and provide suggestions) we will be able to create a better learning experience for all children.

There are 58 questions in this survey

Background

1 How long have you been teaching?

Please enter your answer here:

2 Do you teach in an urban, suburban or rural school?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Urban
• Suburban
• Rural

3 How familiar were you with the use of computers before participating in the Project Ceibal?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Unfamiliar
• Not very familiar
• Somewhat familiar
• Familiar
• Very familiar

4 In your previous experience with computers, which operating systems did you use?

Please select the options that apply:

• Windows
• Apple (Mac)
• GNU / Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian ,...)
• Other

5 Have you ever used a computer in their classroom before Ceibal Project?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

6 How comfortable are you using computers in the classroom?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Very uncomfortable
• Uncomfortable
• Somewhat comfortable
• Comfortable
• Very comfortable

7 How do children (and teachers) start their day with Sugar?

Please select the options that apply:

• At a set time every day?
• As part of most class activities
• At the start of the day
• At the end of the day
• Other

8 Are their computers in use outside of class time?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Always
• Sometimes
• Never

9 Are the computers used in the evening?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Always
• Sometimes
• Never

10 Student access to computers is important because they need to learn to use word processors in order to participate in a technological world.

Please select only one of the following options:

• Strongly disagree
• Disagree
• Neutral
• Agree
• Strongly agree

11 As a result of the Project Ceibal, now I think the following:

Please select only one of the following options:

• Much less
• Less
• Unchanged
• Most
• Much much

12 The student access to computers is important because computers can provide a tool that facilitates the ability of thinking, problem solving, discovery and unlimited in-depth analysis:

Please select only one of the following options:

• Strongly disagree
• Disagree
• Neutral
• Agree
• Strongly agree

13 As a result of my participation in the Project Ceibal, now I think the following:

Please select only one of the following options:

• Much less
• Less
• Unchanged
• Most
• Much much

14 It is important that computers provide access to users who access for the first time:

Please select only one of the following options:

• Strongly disagree
• Disagree
• Neutral
• Agree
• Strongly agree

15 As a result of the Project Ceibal, now I think the following:

Please select only one of the following options:

• Much less
• Less
• Unchanged
• Most
• Much much

16 It is important that the computers will help make the work more complex as it develops the competence of the user:

Please select only one of the following options:

• Strongly disagree
• Disagree
• Neutral
• Agree
• Strongly agree

17 As a result of the Project Ceibal, now I think the following:

Please select only one of the following options:

• Much less
• Less
• Unchanged
• Most
• Much muche

Sugar Activities

Sugar activities are computer programs that have been created to run in the Sugar environment. These activities include: Reading, Writing, Browsing and Painting.

18 The three favorite Sugar activities of my students are:

Please enter your answer here:

19 The three most important Sugar activities for learning are:

Please enter your answer here:

20 A Sugar activity that requires improvement is:

Please enter your answer here:

21 Please estimate how many activities are available in Sugar.

Please enter your answer here:

22 What Activities do they start with?

Please enter your answer here:

23 Which Activities do they spend time on in class?

Please enter your answer here:

24 Which Activities do they spend time on in free time?

Please enter your answer here:

25 At what times do they not use Sugar?

Please enter your answer here:

26 What do they seem to like the most / the least?

Please enter your answer here:

Collaboration in Sugar

Sugar has a feature that allows students to engage in activities that involve collaboration. Examples of this include peer-editing in the Write activity and sharing your favorites in the Browse activity.

27 Do your students use the collaborative features of Sugar?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

28 Have you ever used collaboration features of Sugar to work with their students?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

29 Are children helping each other when they get stuck on something?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

30 Have you ever used collaboration features to work with other teachers?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

31 Is collaborative learning an important feature?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Is not important
• Not very important
• Somewhat important
• Important
• Very important

32 Are there activities you would like to support the collaboration in the Sugar?

Please enter your answer here:

33 How important is it that Sugar activities are directly linked to curriculum guidelines?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Is not important
• Not very important
• Somewhat important
• Important
• Very important

34 Are you comfortable making connections between curricula goals and Sugar acitivities?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Very uncomfortable
• Uncomfortable
• Somewhat comfortable
• Comfortable
• Very comfortable

35 How important is it to include instructional activities in Sugar?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Is not important
• Not very important
• Somewhat important
• Important
• Very important

Sugar Journal

Sugar has another feature that keeps a diary in which is recorded the students' work.

36 Do your students use the description field of the Journal to take notes on your work?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

37 Do your students use the title of the Journal of the field to change the title of the post?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

38 How often do you see the Journal of their students?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

39 How often do you see that the parents of the students look at the Journal?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

Sugar source

Sugar is free and open source software (FOSS). It is designed for the user to change it.

40 Have you looked at the source of any Sugar software?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

41 Have any of your students looked at source the Sugar software?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

42 Is there anything you would like to change regarding the Sugar software?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

43 Have you ever tried to change an activity or the software itself?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

44 If your answer is yes, consider that the experience was:

Please select the options that apply:

• Frustrating
• Satisfactory
• An opportunity to learn
• Other

45 If your answer is negative:

Please select the options that apply:

• You do not know how to program
• You do not have time
• Is too difficult to learn
• Is the responsibility of someone else
• You did not know that it was possible
• It is good to know that there is a chance to do so (even if it has not taken advantage)
• Other

46 Do your students download activities from activites.sugarlabs.org?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

47 Do you download activities from activites.sugarlabs.org?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Very often

Overall Assessment

48 How satisfied are your students with Sugar?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Very dissatisfied
• Dissatisfied eutral
• Neutral
• Satisfied
• Very satisfied

49 How satisfied are you with Sugar?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Very dissatisfied
• Dissatisfied eutral
• Neutral
• Satisfied
• Very satisfied

50 How satisfied are parents and the school community with Sugar?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Very dissatisfied
• Dissatisfied eutral
• Neutral
• Satisfied
• Very satisfied

51 Ceibal Project has resulted in the following:

Please select the options that apply:

• Reducing truancy
• Increased participation by children
• Empowerment of teachers
• Increased self-esteem of teachers
• Reducing the need to impose disciplinary measures
• Decreased interruptions by students
• Increased self-esteem of the students
• Increased "connection" with the world (other cultures, languages, ideas)
• Increased participation of parents
• The school as community center
• Developing a culture of sharing (from child to child, from school to the community, the teacher to the parent)
• Better computers in the classroom

Monitoring

52 Would you like to participate in a more detailed follow-up survey?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

53 Would you participate in an online forum with other teachers to exchange ideas on Sugar?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

54 Would you participate in an online forum with software programmers to exchange ideas on Sugar?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

55 What online forums used for?

Please select the options that apply:

• Chat
• IRC
• Blog
• Wiki
• E-mail
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Second Life
• LinkedIn
• Ning
• Other discussion forum

56 Would you participate in a discussion with other teachers in an online forum?

Please select only one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

57 If your answer is yes What would be the most suitable forum to conduct discussions?

Please select the options that apply:

• Chat
• IRC
• Blog
• Wiki
• E-mail
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Second Life
• LinkedIn
• Ning
• Other discussion forum

58 Do you have other ideas or suggestions on how to involve more teachers?

Please enter your answer here:

Thanks

Please enter your answer here:

Send your inquiry. Thank you for completing this survey.