Educational Technology Commons^™

Blind Accessibility In College And University: Is Online Learning Accessible To All?, Erica R. Hagman

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Increasing technological advancement, coupled with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting social distancing orders, has amplified the push for online learning and hybrid courses like never before. As education moves online, are the necessary adjustments to accommodate students with varying levels of ability being made? One would think that online learning would be easier to navigate for Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) students, but is that truly the case? In this study I investigated if the Learning Management System (LMS), Canvas, is accessible to BVI students. I hypothesized that BVI students would have more difficulty accessing classroom material …

Flipping A Virtual Efl Public Speaking Class Integrated With Moocs During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zhuo Li, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This case study explored Chinese undergraduate EFL students’ attitudes to and perceptions of an online English public speaking course, which employs a virtual flipped classroom model and MOOCs during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Since all classes were moved online, a previously flipped public speaking course integrated with MOOCs was converted into a virtual flipped classroom. All 25 participants of the study were undergraduate students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field. Zoom, Blackboard, and QQ instant messenger were platforms utilized in instruction. There were weekly two-hour Zoom meetings with learning activities using MOOCs on Blackboard. The study collected …

Beyond Tickets And Comma Splices: Using Writing Center Coaching Techniques To Support Online Learners, Lisa Mcneal, Jennifer P. Gray

Georgia Educational Researcher

Many college students struggle with technical difficulties when enrolled in an online or hybrid class. Sometimes students do not even have a choice about online options, such as in the COVID-19 era, when the shift to remote instruction has happened and could happen at any time. Students need support for success in the online environment, yet many support models focus on the immediate problem rather than deeper root causes for the problem or misunderstanding. Traditional support models may use a ticket-based system that strives to quickly resolve the issue at hand. While the ticket-based system has some merit, there is …

Virtual Tutor Personality In Computer Assisted Language Learning, Johanna Dobbriner, Cathy Ennis, Robert J. Ross

Conference papers

The use of intelligent virtual agents in language learning has increased in recent years. Studies into several aspects of personalisation aiming to increase user engagement are an ongoing research topic with avatar personality being one such aspect. As a step towards our development of intelligent virtual avatars, we present two of our initial experiments to explore differences in user interaction with two contrasting avatar personalities -- P1: open-minded, friendly and sociable and P2: closed-off, curt and distant. Each user interacted with a single personality in a video-call setting and gave feedback on the interaction. Our expectations, that P1 would be …

Bridging The Informal And Formal Learning Spaces With Whatsapp, Tutaleni I. Asino, Nandita Gurjar, Perien Boer

Faculty Publications

When it comes to digital-based learning, the question of engagement and presence is often focused on online learning involving traditional computing devices such as desktop computers or laptops. However, in areas where mobile devices are the most widely used computing technology, engagement and interaction between teachers and students looks different. In many parts of the world, interactions between individuals takes place through mobile texting applications to bridge formal and informal learning spaces.

One of the most popular mobile tools is WhatsApp, a free cross-platform mobile application that allows users to make calls (voice) and send messages (text). The app averages …

Understanding And Predicting Retractions Of Published Work, Sai Ajay Modukuri, Sarah Rajtmajer, Anna Cinzia Squicciarini, Jian Wu, C. Lee Giles

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Recent increases in the number of retractions of published papers reflect heightened attention and increased scrutiny in the scientific process motivated, in part, by the replication crisis. These trends motivate computational tools for understanding and assessment of the scholarly record. Here, we sketch the landscape of retracted papers in the Retraction Watch database, a collection of 19k records of published scholarly articles that have been retracted for various reasons (e.g., plagiarism, data error). Using metadata as well as features derived from full-text for a subset of retracted papers in the social and behavioral sciences, we develop a random forest classifier …

Digital Labour And Temporal Priorities Within A Secondary School, Nicola F. Johnson

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Digital devices and ubiquitous online access contribute to the nature and amount of digital labour conducted by school staff. Drawing on more than 40 interviews with staff at one Australian secondary school, the general nature of this digital labour is presented, then Clancy’s notion of temporal autonomous spaces is introduced and applied to theorise why some teachers used digital technologies constantly in their teaching. The article highlights how some teachers invested their time in learning about and using digital technologies because it enhanced their sense of autonomy and increased their sense of freed time. It theorises how teachers who invest …

Raw And Pure Education In The Society, Iwasan D. Kejawa

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

What does education mean to individuals in the world today? Education is a way one can attain or improve his or her ability to lead and survive in the society of ours. Without educational training of the mind, it may be impossible to realize the importance of adaptability of living in the environment. Without education, It may also be difficult to embellish the use of both the mental and physical attributes possessed by individual beings.

What really is education? Education is the training of the mind to perform desire functions or to perpetuate the modality of obtaining an end or …

Vulnerable Learners In The Age Of Covid-19: A Scoping Review, Catherine F. Drane, Lynette Vernon, Sarah O’Shea

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, The Author(s). This scoping review provides an overview of COVID-19 approaches to managing unanticipated school closures and available literature related to young people learning outside-of-school. A range of material has been drawn upon to highlight educational issues of this learning context, including psychosocial and emotional repercussions. Globally, while some countries opted for a mass school shut-down, many schools remained open for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This partial closure not only enabled learning in smaller targeted groups but also offered a safe sanctuary for those who needed a regulated and secure environment. In Australia, if full school closures were …

Pivoting To Deeper Experiences In Higher Education Classrooms, Danielle M. Pratt, Daniel W. Eadens

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In higher education, pivoting quickly to a fully virtual experience online in the midst of a global pandemic is an adventure. There are marked differences between the online experience for a student who was already in a web-delivered course versus one that started face-to-face and quickly pivoted to an online setting. Some assignments, lessons, and courses are easily delivered in alternate formats while other learning opportunities are much more difficult to transition for online delivery. For example, assignments that involve internships or in-person experiences had to shift dramatically, be delayed, or cancelled. Beyond the experiences within the higher education classroom, …

The Extent Of Online Platforms Utilization For Scholarly Research Work Dissemination: A Survey Of Academic Staff In African Universities, Valentine Joseph Owan, Michael Ekpenyong Asuquo Ph.D, Violet Makuku Ph.D., Eno Etudor-Eyo Ph.D.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

An assessment of the extent of the use of electronic platforms by African academic staff in universities to disseminate research was done in this study. The study is informed by the growing importance of online repositories and preprint servers in the scientific communication of scholarly output, especially in an era where the use of metrics for research appraisals and funding decisions is commonly practised. The quantitative research method was adopted, based on the descriptive survey research design. The snowball sampling technique was used for data collection. Data were collected from 1,977 respondents, distributed across 24 African countries, through the use …

E-Learning Enhancement, Status And Attitude Of Learners Towards Teaching Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic, Shweta Gupta, Shri Ram Pandey, Sujata Gupta

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study explored the several dimensions of eLearning used by Indian Higher Institutions and presented insight into current eLearning pedagogy, infrastructures, services, and perceptions during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The study's findings reveal that Indian Academic institutions are unwilling to shift to the online mode for teaching, learning thoroughly. Pandemic forced them to adopt the e-learning pedagogy and tools. A majority of users still prefer the traditional classroom environment as compared to eLearning. Email, social media, and other communications tools became vital today. Email, traditionally used as a communication tool, is now a key player in delivering educational content. Social media …

Rapid Transition Of A Technical Course From Face-To-Face To Online, Swapna Gottipatti, Venky Shankaraman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Just like most universities around the world, the senior management at Singapore Management University decided to move all courses to a virtual, online, synchronous mode, giving instructors a very short notice period—one week—to make this transition. In this paper, we describe the challenges, practical solutions adopted, and the lessons learnt in rapidly transitioning a face-to-face Master’s degree course in Text Analytics and Applications into a virtual, online, course format that could deliver a quality learning experience.

Assessment Of Awareness Level Of E-Learning Classroom Strategies Of University Lecturers: Implication For Evaluation Of Library And Information Science Resources, Bianca Uzoamaka Mbonu-Adigwe, Bukar Alhaji Umate, William Okoroaja Onu, Ifesinachi Jude Ezugwu, Cliff Ikenna Okebanama, Maureen Nkolika Okoye, Christian Sunday Ugwuanyi Phd, Chinedu I.O. Okeke Phd

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The emergence of information technology has brought a drastic change in the role of university libraries. University Libraries play key role in supporting e-learning implying that Library and information science personnel can significantly assist in the integration of information resources in the process of electronic learning. Thus, this study investigated lecturers’ level of awareness of e-learning classroom strategies. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The sample comprised 149 lecturers teaching integrated science courses. Instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire titled Lecturers’ Awareness Level of E-learning Strategies (LALES). LALES was validated and the reliability index of the …

Swot Analysis Of The Role Of Open Educational Resources In Future Education With Special Reference To Open University Library And Librarian, Nisha G. Maharaj Ms., Ami U. Upadhyay Prof.(Dr), Mayank J. Trivadi Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Recent years have seen an immense increase in the digitization of research libraries and institutions especially of higher educational Institutes as well as higher learning. The reason for the same witnessed are E-Learning allows for more efficient learning at a lower cost, as well as expanded worldwide access to learning and explicit accountability for all participants in the learning process. The usage of Open Educational Resources (OER) in modern Indian higher education is playing an increasingly important role in improving the quality of education in both developed and developing nations. The goal of OER is to make this information freely …

Information And Communication Technology Tool And Children’S Achievement In Basic Science: Implication For Evaluation Of Library And Information Resources, Christian S. Ugwuanyi Phd, Chinedu I.O. Okeke Phd, Charity C. Okeke

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The mode of teaching shifted from the traditional face-to-face to the remote or online mode of teaching in most countries of the world due to the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Thus, the new normal demands the use of information and communication tool for instructional delivery across the levels of education. On this premise, the study sought the efficacy of information and communication tool (flipped classroom) on the children’s achievement in Basic Science. Adopting simple repeated measures design, 31 primary three children participated in the treatment session. Basic Science Achievement Test (BSAT) that was properly validated and trial-tested was …

Evolving Visual Arts’ Faculty Pedagogical Skills Through Technology Integration In Higher Education, Nimra Akram Miss, Syeda Hina Batool Dr, Tauseef Hussain Mr, Muhammad Safdar, Shahid Hussain Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study is about the current status of technology’s usage by visual arts’ faculty members to enhance their pedagogical skills. It explores the impact of using technology in visual arts and the constraints in its integration. Researchers used qualitative research design to conduct this study. Data was collected, through semi-structured interviews, from faculty working in painting department of four institutions of Lahore, Pakistan. The findings of the study showed that faculty members were using technology for different purposes such as for art making, research and communications. However, at the same time, the use of technology was limited due to various …

A Meta-Analysis: Gamification In Education, Yalin Wang

Masters Theses

“Gamification has been used in a variety of contexts including education. In order to understand the effects of gamification in education, a meta-analysis was conducted. A bottom-up approach was used to analyze the effects of game design elements on learning outcomes found in the literature search. The result suggests that gamification can enhance student learning outcomes. Elements such as points, leaderboards, competitions, progress bars, feedback, and collaboration have medium to large effect sizes. Gamification also has larger effects on young children in elementary education than learners at other education levels. The study offers suggestions and guidelines for educators on the …

Recommender Systems In Higher Education: The Effectiveness Of Meta-Data Analysis In Predicting Academic Success, Michael J. Holmes

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

A recommender system is: “a software technology that proactively suggests items of interest to users based on their objective behavior or their explicitly stated preferences” (Pu et al., 2011, p. 157).

Whether we realize it or not, much of our lives are influenced by recommender systems. These systems may recommend where we eat, what movie we watch, what music we listen to, what products we buy, or even what news and social media content we see.

Recommender systems have been effectively utilized in higher education to recommend courses as well as customizing content within an online course to meet specific …

K-12 Blended Teaching Skills And Abilities: An Analysis Of Blended Teaching Artifacts, Cecil R. Short, Charles R. Graham, Emily Sabey

Faculty Publications

Several professional organizations, non-profit groups, and researchers have provided K–12 blended teaching (BT) competencies; however, few of these have connected competencies to concrete practices. This analysis used a set of research-based BT dispositions, technology skills, and competencies (i.e., proficiencies) to analyze a representative sample of 959 artifacts focused on BT practices to uncover the proficiencies important to K–12 BT. The dispositions recognized for BT appeared in 87.9% of the artifacts, personalization competencies in 58.3%, technology skills in 54.0%, data practices in 46.0%, implementation competencies in 37.1%, online integration competencies in 30.4%, and online interaction competencies in 5.6%. Each of these …