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The interest towards game-based learning (GBL) is continuously growing worldwide. However, several countries still face difficulties to efficiently implement GBL approaches in their Educational Institutions. This literature review is focused on the identification of the main types of GBL approaches that have been recently implemented in educational contexts, by providing one representative game-example for each case. The study also examines the implementation of GBL in educational contexts in Greece, identifying game-based learning popular tools and approaches. A qualitative content analysis is used to investigate the general characteristics of the identified GBL types and the representative example-games, as well as the main benefits and drawbacks that render GBL implementation impracticable in several countries. Overall, this study contributes in the research attempt towards the recognition of the main GBL types, focusing on their drawbacks or other features that seem to affect their broad implementation in several countries and educational contexts.

The success of the teachers' trainers' transfer of training can be affected by several factors like teaching self-efficacy, motivation to learn and transfer, and intention to transfer the gained skills and knowledge. This study seeks to analyze the structural relationships among the above-mentioned constructs by integrating the constructs of perceived usefulness and satisfaction of the ICT training programme. The analysis is conducted on quantitative data collected from 117 teacher educators participating in a national programme on "Teachers training on the use and application of digital technologies in the teaching practice" in Greece. Results of the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that perceived usefulness and satisfaction of the training programme had a significant positive effect on the teachers' self-efficacy and intention to transfer the gained ICT training knowledge and skills. Also, pre-training and post-training self-efficacy exerted a direct influence on the teachers' intention to transfer, motivation to transfer, and motivation to learn. The potential contribution and practical implications in the field of adult education and teachers' continuing professional development are discussed in the paper.

The aim of this study is to propose a new structural model for how teachers transfer their ICT training (TeTra-ICT), shedding light on the factors that tend to affect their intention to integrate digital technologies in educational practices as well as train their colleagues. The proposed model exploits training programme design characteristics and ICT-related individual factors. A total of 117 new ICT instructors for primary and secondary education teachers in Greece were evaluated. The instructors participated in a national Teacher Training Programme on applying ICT in education. Results indicate significant effects of individual (ICT-related self-efficacy in teaching) and programme design characteristics (platform's ease of use, support, content, and resources) on the teachers' final motivation and intention to transfer their ICT knowledge and skills. The model also reveals significant correlations between individual and training characteristics, the teachers' post-training self-efficacy for transferring skills and their perception of the usefulness of the training programme. The examined constructs explain 86% of the variance in teacher intentions to transfer their ICT knowledge and skills, and 72% of their perception of the usefulness of the training programme. Interestingly, while there were no gender differences in individual ICT-related characteristics, women expressed significantly higher values than men in their perception of the usefulness of training, self-efficacy, motivation, and intention to transfer.

Despite pervasive educational efforts, student interest in STEM careers continues to decline in many countries. The present study seeks to better understand this phenomenon by examining how internal factors (gender) and external factors (school grades, grade level, family size) relate to Kazakh students' STEM career interests. To this end, a newly developed instrument (STEM Career Interest Survey) based on social cognitive career theory was used to assess interest in STEM careers among middle- and secondary students in Kazakhstan. The survey was completed by a sample of 396 Kazakh students in grades 7 to 12. Our statistical analyses revealed that (1) female students were generally less interested in STEM careers than male students; (2) students with higher grades in physics classes were significantly more interested in STEM careers than low-performing students; (3) students at higher grade levels were generally more interested in STEM careers than those in lower grade levels; (4) the number of siblings was positively associated with student interest in mathematics careers; and (5) family support and role models were significantly correlated with student STEM career interest. Our findings suggest that student development of interest in STEM careers constitutes an epigenetic phenomenon that involves complex interactions between internal factors (e.g., self-efficacy) and external factors (e.g., gender stereotypes). Based on this, it is argued that the promotion of student interest in STEM careers is a multifaceted problem whose resolution requires, among other things, dispelling stereotypes in students' sociocultural context through systematic renegotiation of traditional gender-technology relations characteristic of a country's culture.

This study investigates students' mouse behavior during their interaction with a web-based experiential learning environment for Computer Science courses. The research focuses on the detection of correlations between the monitored mouse metrics and students' technology acceptance items of perceived usefulness and ease of use. Findings reveal several significant correlations; in particular, metrics of mouse clicks and hovers can be associated with students' perceived ease use and perceived usefulness. The findings of this work show an interesting research direction towards the analysis of learners' mouse behavior during their interaction with interactive and web-based tutoring systems.

During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, most schools worldwide were closed and online teaching replaced face-to-face teaching. This study reports the results of a survey among 845 teachers of primary and secondary education in Greece who taught their students fully remotely during the pandemic lockdown. These Greek teachers expressed the difficulties that they faced as well as the opportunities that they gained during this emergency distance teaching (EDT). Through qualitative content analysis this study found that everyone (students, teachers, and state) involved in EDT faced various difficulties due to digital infrastructure's inadequacy, limited support by the state, limited digital educational material, as well as low digital literacy of students, parents, and even some teachers. On the other hand, there were many opportunities for teachers to experiment and apply their prior training knowledge on distance education to EDT. More concretely, teachers managed not only to improve their teaching and digital skills, to enrich and organise their educational material with more interesting online educational resources, but also to collaborate with colleagues, and to maintain effective communication with students. Similarly, students had opportunities to improve their digital and soft skills and receive personalized teaching. However, some teachers believed that their workload and their available free time increased while other teachers believed the opposite. Also, some teachers believed that students' participation and engagement increased while other teachers believed the opposite. Finally, the study suggests actions to be taken to support the teachers in EDT such as improvements in digital infrastructure, digital educational material, teachers' training, as well as support and clear guidelines by the educational authorities.

Aim/Purpose: The study examines the teachers' perceptions towards a set of socio-emotional characteristics of distance education (DE) in primary and secondary schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. The examined characteristics include perceived joy, stress, effort/fatigue, isolation, inclusiveness, and collaboration/interaction. Background: The transition to emergency distance education had a large socio-emotional impact on teachers. Recent evidence certifies an increase in mental health issues like stress and load. Studies also recognized online teaching barriers including difficulties in communication and interaction with students. This study focuses on the examination of the socio-emotional characteristics of distance education as perceived by primary and secondary education teachers in Greece. The study also investigates differences between primary and secondary education, teaching disciplines, and the role of individual factors like gender, age, and experience. Methodology: The study used a mixed-method research design with closed-ended and open-ended questions on a sample of 845 teachers of primary and secondary education in Greece. The closed-ended questionnaire consisted of 19 items of socio-emotional DE characteristics, measured in a 5-point bipolar format. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted on 16 items, indicating three components: (a) effort/fatigue, (b) inclusiveness, and (c) collaboration/interactivity. A single-item scale was considered for joy, fatigue, stress, and isolation. The finalized measurement model was evaluated in terms of item loadings, reliability of measures, convergent, and discriminant validity, with the help of the SmartPLS software. Descriptive statistics and percentages were calculated with the help of SPSS software. Because of the non-normal distribution of the data, non-parametric methods of Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis were performed to examine significant differences in teacher groups. The qualitative part of the analysis was conducted on text data received from two open-ended questions, on a sample of 602 cases. The identified qualitative constructs were investigated through content thematic analysis focusing on the identification of the socio-emotional codes and references, excluding non-relevant themes and cases. Contribution: The findings of the study contribute towards the deeper understanding of the teachers' psychological or emotional state during the early stage of the COVID-19 emergency DE, as well as on the role of individual and other factors like gender, age, teaching stage, and teaching subject. The results can be leveraged during or after the pandemic, to design pedagogical or psychological practices and strategies to encourage and facilitate the teachers' transition to DE. Findings: A measurement model of the teachers' perceived socio-emotional characteristics towards emergency distance education was developed and validated. The model includes the components of: (a) effort/fatigue, (b) inclusiveness, (c) collaboration/interactivity, (d) isolation, (e) joy, and (f) stress. The quantitative results indicated that teachers experienced increased levels of fatigue, and perceived DE as difficult and time-consuming. Teachers of primary education reported significantly lower levels of perceived collaboration/interaction than secondary teachers. Female teachers reported significantly higher scores of both joy and stress, while the youngest age groups expressed the highest scores of joy. The teaching subject also revealed differences in fatigue. Through qualitative analysis, this study also identified several socio-emotional thematic codes revealing the teachers' difficulties in interaction and communication with students as well as a set of emotional attributes like fatigue, joy, and stress. Recommendations for Practitioners: Teachers should modify their face-to-face teaching material and adjust it to online teaching principles, avoiding future load and frustration. Different approaches should be implemented in primary and secondary education and indifferent teaching disciplines. Also, teachers should be trained on DE-oriented digital skills, ICT competencies, and socio-emotional skills, e.g., by receiving psychological and socio-emotional support from experts. Strategies to decrease fatigue and stress, especially in synchronous teaching should be traced by schools and educators. Recommendation for Researchers: The findings provide theoretical evidence on the teachers' socio-emotional attitude towards DE and their experiences in the first stages of the emergency remote education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Impact on Society: This research highlights the perceived DE characteristics and the barriers to online teaching during COVID-19. Schools, educators, and society should collaborate to provide awareness and opportunities for successful distance education practices. Future Research: The survey is based on individual self-reported measures, and this restricts the deeper understanding of the findings. Hence, future research should extend this work by using different methods of data collection like for instance observations, course recordings, interviews, or focus groups.

Towards the transition to blended and remote education, evaluating the levels of students' digital competence and designing educational programs to advance them is of paramount importance. Existing validated digital competence scales usually ignore either important digital skills needed or new socio-technological innovations. This study proposes and validates a comprehensive digital competence scale for students in higher education. The suggested instrument includes skills of online learning and collaboration, social media, smart and mobile devices, safety, and data protection. The scale was evaluated on a sample of 156 undergraduate and postgraduate students just before and at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. The final scale is composed of 28 items and six digital competence components. The evaluation study revealed valid results in terms of model fit criteria, factor loadings, internal validity, and reliability. Individual factors like the students' field of study, computer experience and age revealed significant associations to the scale components, while gender revealed no significant differences. The suggested scale can be useful to the design of new actions and policies towards remote education and the digital skills' development of adult learners.

Considering the distinct particularities of emergency remote education (ERE) and the urgent need for new or adjusted measurement models, this study develops and validates a multidimensional instrument to measure students' attitude towards ERE. The Remote Learning Attitude Scale (RLAS) was explored and validated on a sample of 142 students participating in fully remote teaching and learning university programmes during the COVID-19 crisis, in Greece. The exploratory factor analysis clearly revealed five dimensions, and the model was evaluated through PLS-SEM confirmatory factor analysis. The study also found that the students' field of study and prior experience in distance learning cause differentiations in RLAS dimensions, while gender and age make no statistical differences. Results indicate that RLAS is a practical and effective tool for evaluating the university students' attitude towards remote as opposed to traditional teaching and learning.

Learning related emotions (LREs) are determinant for students' achievement both in face-to-face and online education. Research has also shown that LREs tend to affect technology acceptance which in turn affects learning outcomes as well. Today though, the negative psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the sudden transmission to obligatory remote education might yield different functions of emotions and acceptance on learning outcomes. In this context, the current study seeks to model the relations between students' negative emotions, acceptance of (emergency) remote education, and self-perceived knowledge improvement. The suggested model was examined and validated on 116 university students that attended fully remote courses in Greece during the COVID-19 crisis. The results suggested that negative emotions of boredom and cognitive load are significant predictors of students' acceptance of remote learning components: (1) online attending a lecture; (2) online communicating with professor; and (3) online collaborating with peers. Anxiety directly affected perceived knowledge improvement, boredom, and cognitive load; Boredom was also affected by cognitive load. In addition, acceptance of remote learning components indirectly affected perceived knowledge improvement mediated by learnability. Boredom was the strongest predictor of online attending a lecture and online collaborating with peers, while online communication with professor was the strongest predictor of learnability. The contribution of this study and the structural findings are further discussed in the paper.

Important variables related to transfer information & communication technologies (ICT) training include the individual's perceived motivation to learn, motivation to transfer, and intention to transfer the ICT training. Most previous studies investigate the transfer of ICT training and its application in the daily teaching practice by ordinary teachers, usually neglecting the important population of the teachers' trainers. These teachers' trainers receive advanced ICT training before start training their colleagues. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers' trainers' transfer of ICT training analyzing the structural relationships of their afore-mentioned variables with their gender, ICT self-efficacy, and a set of ICT individual factors. The study employed structural equation modeling using data collected from 117 teachers' trainers in primary and secondary education who participated in a national ICT Transfer Training Programme for teachers' trainers in Greece. The results reveal strong associations between ICT-related self-efficacy and transfer training measures. Both gender and ICT factors cause significant differences in the levels of their ICT self-efficacy measures. ICT expertise and gender highlight significant relationship paths in the model, while gender seems to play a moderating role as well.

This study investigates students' performance, perception and acceptance when experiential learning approaches are integrated in Computer Science courses. An experiential learning approach has been designed to assist students in web development courses. The proposed learning approach in based on real-world examples and the abstraction of terminology using a sequential wizard-based logic. A survey model has been constructed and an exploratory study is conducted on 54 under and post graduate students. Results demonstrated high degree of perception and acceptance, as well as high performance scores. No gender differences have been detected in the examined sample and several strong correlations have been found among the measured variables. In particular, perceived ease of use and usefulness are strongly correlated to each other as well as to self-efficacy, willingness to learn and satisfaction. Satisfaction and self-efficacy are not correlated to each other, while performance has not been affected by anyone of the measured variables.

The study is conducted on 558 under-graduate students in Romania and Spain to examine potential differences in perception and acceptance items towards using web-based technologies. The research model is based on the Internet Attitude Scale (IAS) and measures Perceived Enjoyment, Perceived Anxiety, Perceived Usefulness and Computer Self-Efficacy. Results from country-based group comparisons reveal significant differences in all four constructs, while gender does not seem to affect any of them. Multiple-group PLS analysis reveals similarities but also a couple of differences in the relationship paths for the Romanian and Spanish students. Overall, the examined model fits well in the combined-complete population.

YouTube is a popular social media platform in the contemporary digital landscape. The primary focus of this study is to explore the underlying sentiment in user comments about food-related videos on YouTube, specifically within two pivotal food categories: plant-based and hedonic product. We labeled comments using sentiment lexicons such as TextBlob, VADER, and Google's Sentiment Analysis (GSA) engine. Comment sentiment was classified using advanced Machine-Learning (ML) algorithms, namely Support Vector Machines (SVM), Multinomial Naive Bayes, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, and XGBoost. The evaluation of these models encompassed key macro average metrics, including accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score. The results from GSA showed a high accuracy level, with SVM achieving 93% accuracy in the plant-based dataset and 96% in the hedonic dataset. In addition to sentiment analysis, we delved into user interactions within the two datasets, measuring crucial metrics, such as views, likes, comments, and engagement rate. The findings illuminate significantly higher levels of views, likes, and comments in the hedonic food dataset, but the plant-based dataset maintains a superior overall engagement rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer emotions and brand awareness are closely linked to the online advertising experience. Interactivity can enhance consumers' engagement with social media sites and brands. However, there is a lack of research on evaluating consumers' experience in social media interactive campaigns. To address this gap, the study proposes using mouse tracking as an unobtrusive method to collect consumers' behavioural responses while interacting with gamified campaigns. The study involved 21 users who completed two experimental tasks, during which mouse data and explicit self-reported responses about their emotional states, brand awareness, and purchase intent were collected. Thirteen mouse features were calculated, including time between clicks, time between movements, speed, acceleration, total number of clicks, total number of movements, and total number of pauses. The study found that fast movements and a low number of actions were associated with a positive user experience in terms of brand awareness and intention to buy or recommend the product, while slow movements and long or frequent pauses were associated with negative emotions such as stress, frustration, and confusion. The findings indicate that mouse tracking can be a valuable tool for assessing brand engagement and the emotional dimensions of users' interactions with gamified marketing campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to understand how students' attitudes were connected to the web based software Socrative. The study was conducted with 50 students taking first year physics courses in a university. The survey dimensions were based on four previous research works and the survey instrument was extended to better reflect the current study needs. Quantitative results showed that there was no difference between attitudes of male and female students. Moreover results indicated that students in the civil engineering major had significantly more positive attitudes than molecular biology and genetic major students. For the results of the qualitative question students generally mentioned the practical use, time saving, immediate feedback and enabling many question types as the advantages of Socrative. Based on these results, it can be noted that Socrative serves an important role in student engagement and attitudes toward physics.

This paper addresses the role of gender in End-User Development (EUD) environments and examines whether there are gender differences in performance and in correlations between performance and a set of behavioral attributes. Based on a review of the most prominent EUD-related behavioral Human Computer Interaction (HCI) theories, and the influence of gender on them, it attempts to classify all the gender related behavioral attributes influencing the end-users' performance. Then, it theoretically selects a subset of these attributes, namely "Risk-Perception," "Usefulness-Perception," "Learning Willingness," "Ease-of-Use-Perception," and "Self-Efficacy," presents an example application and conducts a basic evaluation testing. The proposed attributes (their initials form the word RULES) can form the basis for the design of EUD-oriented user modeling techniques for gender-neutral self-adaptive software EUD environments.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to examine the influence of digital competences, technology acceptance, and individual factors (gender and educational level) on academic achievement in Physical Education and Sports Science (PESS). Background: Prior research has established a positive correlation between digital competences and performance, but the mediating role of technology acceptance remains unclear. Furthermore, there is no evidence in the literature about this relationship among students pursuing degrees in PESS. Methodology: A survey was administered to 344 students pursuing degrees in PESS. The Students' Digital Competence Scale (SDiCoS) measured digital competences, while the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) assessed technology acceptance. Academic performance was evaluated based on students' GPAs. Contribution: This paper investigated the role of digital competence within the TAM framework and its influence on academic performance. We propose that digital competence variables positively impact students' intention to use digital tools for learning. This aligns with TAM principles, where intention and attitude toward technology predict its actual use. Our findings further strengthen the understanding of TAM by confirming strong connections between perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude toward technology. Additionally, the study suggests that digital competence and frequent device usage patterns might be more prevalent in postgraduate education. Findings: The investigation supports the link between digital competences and technology acceptance in PESS students. Specifically, TAM variables, particularly attitudes and intentions regarding technology use, significantly predicted these students' academic performance. Interestingly, no direct association was found between SDiCoS digital competences and academic performance. Digital competence variables were positively associated with students' intention to use digital tools for learning. Gender differences emerged, with females reporting higher academic performance and proficiency in Communicate, Collaborate, and Share (CCS) competences. Furthermore, postgraduate students reported digital competences, higher academic performance, stronger intentions to use technology, and more frequent utilization of laptops/tablets. Recommendations for Practitioners: Educators, administrators, and policymakers should consider targeted interventions and curriculum development to enhance academic performance in the fields of physical education and sports science. Specifically, strategies should focus on fostering digital competences in areas relevant to the field while addressing gender-specific needs. Recommendations for Researchers: Future research should further explore the nuanced relationship between digital competences, technology acceptance, and academic performance, with a focus on refining the predictive efficacy of TAM variables and examining the role of individual factors, such as motivation and self-efficacy. Impact on Society: The findings have implications for improving academic outcomes in PESS, ultimately contributing to the development of a highly skilled and technology-literate workforce in this field. Future Research: Future research should examine the specific mechanisms through which digital competences and technology acceptance influence academic performance to develop effective interventions and strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of social media is continuously growing, as it endeavors to bridge the gap in communication between individuals. YouTube, one of the most well-known social media platforms with millions of users, stands out due to its remarkable ability to facilitate communication through the exchange of video content. Despite its primary purpose being entertainment, YouTube also offers individuals the valuable opportunity to learn from its vast array of educational content. The primary objective of this study is to explore the sentiments of YouTube learners by analyzing their comments on educational YouTube videos. A total of 167,987 comments were extracted and processed from educational YouTube channels through the YouTube Data API and Google Sheets. Lexicon-based sentiment analysis was conducted using two different methods, VADER and TextBlob, with the aim of detecting the prevailing sentiment. The sentiment analysis results revealed that the dominant sentiment expressed in the comments was neutral, followed by positive sentiment, while negative sentiment was the least common. VADER and TextBlob algorithms produced comparable results. Nevertheless, TextBlob yielded higher scores in both positive and negative sentiments, whereas VADER detected a greater number of neutral statements. Furthermore, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic clustering outcomes shed light on various video attributes that potentially influence viewers' experiences. These attributes included animation, music, and the conveyed messages within the videos. These findings make a significant contribution to ongoing research efforts aimed at understanding the educational advantages of YouTube and discerning viewers' preferences regarding video components and educational topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning mostly involves communication and interaction that leads to new information being processed, which eventually turns into knowledge. In the digital era, these actions pass through online technologies. Formal education uses LMSs that support these actions and, at the same time, produce massive amounts of data. In a distance learning model, the assignments have an important role besides assessing the learning outcome; they also help students become actively engaged with the course and regulate their learning behavior. In this work, we leverage data retrieved from students' online interactions to improve our understanding of the learning process. Focusing on log data, we investigate the students' activity that occur close to and during assignment submission due dates. Additionally, their activity in relation to their academic achievements is examined and the response time in the forum communication is computed both for students and their tutors. The main findings include that students tend to procrastinate in the submission of their assignments mostly at the beginning of the course. Furthermore, the last-minute submissions are usually made late at night, which probably indicates poor management or lack of available time. Regarding forum interactions, our findings highlight that tutors tend to respond faster than students in the corresponding posts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the online behavior and purchase intent of online consumers in social media can bring significant benefits to the ecommerce business and consumer research community. Despite the tight links between consumer emotions and purchase decisions, previous studies focused primarily on predicting purchase intent through web analytics and sales historical data. Here, the use of facially expressed emotions is suggested to infer the purchase intent of online consumers while watching social media video campaigns for food products (yogurt and nut butters). A FaceReader OnlineTM multi-stage experiment was set, collecting data from 154 valid sessions of 74 participants. A set of different classification models was deployed, and the performance evaluation metrics were compared. The models included Neural Networks (NNs), Logistic Regression (LR), Decision Trees (DTs), Random Forest (RF,) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The NNs proved highly accurate (90–91%) in predicting the consumers' intention to buy or try the product, while RF showed promising results (75%). The expressions of sadness and surprise indicated the highest levels of relative importance in RF and DTs correspondingly. Despite the low activation scores in arousal, micro expressions of emotions proved to be sufficient input in predicting purchase intent based on instances of facially decoded emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of educational technology has made significant strides, offering cost-effective multimedia tools and physical resources to facilitate both formal and informal teaching methods in computer science, with a particular emphasis on the development of computational thinking (CT) and programming skills. However, there is a lack of research focusing on practice-based tasks, such as Internet of Things (IoT) projects, for undergraduate students to demonstrate and program educational robots using digital and physical-supported instructional approaches. Specifically, there have been no studies examining the association between students' learning outcomes and their absorption and need for cognition on different platforms, such as Scratch and LEGO® WeDo. This study aims to provide empirical evidence by comparing the impact of two different platforms commonly used in programming courses to teach undergraduate students how to design, develop, and program IoT projects using educational robots. A quasi-experimental study was carried out to examine whether there were any significant variations in students' CT skills and programming development, as well as to evaluate their learning outcomes with regard to their need for cognition and absorption when they applied their coding expertise to real-world IoT projects. As a point of reference (control condition), twenty students (n = 20) utilized LEGO® WeDo robotics kits and Scratch for coding tasks, which is the most familiar instructional approach. In the intervention approach (experimental condition), thirty-seven students (n = 37) used LEGO® WeDo robotics kits and their software to learn how to code their educational robots. Participants from the latter group learned how to design and demonstrate the program and showed superior CT skills and programming skills development than their counterparts in the control group who used Scratch. Furthermore, the results indicate that students with higher levels of CT skills and programming execution reveal lower absorption but a higher need for cognition in educational robot-supported IoT projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the offline and online communication skills of students in higher education. A total of 402 bachelor's and master's students from different study programs participated in the survey, such as education sciences, philology, communication sciences, and public relations. The evaluation was based on the scale of online and offline communication skills, which included four components: sociability, emotion decoding, self-disclosure, and assertiveness. The Mann–Whitney nonparametric statistical method was applied to examine the potential differences between the online and offline communication skills of students for the assessed variables of sociability, emotion detection, self-disclosure, and assertiveness. The statistical data analysis led to the following results: significantly higher online sociability; significantly higher online assertiveness; significantly higher offline emotion detection; significantly higher offline self-disclosure; bachelor's students had significantly higher online skills than master's students; and there were many differences between the various fields of specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to assess students' ethical attitudes towards social networks (SNs) in order to identify ethical norms and principles, which should be implemented in universities. A self-reported survey was conducted on 583 Bachelor and Master students majoring in different domains in a Romanian university. The results revealed that students in higher education express an overall positive attitude towards the ethical use of SNs, taking seriously various ethical concerns such as the use of appropriate language, the selection of the content they share, and copywriting. Students also expressed a positive attitude towards the use of emoticons in their SNs communications. Significant differences were detected between different groups of students according to their gender, age, and specialization. The model of ethical attitudes provides a new perspective on how students and teachers know and respect the rules of using social networks in the academic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive background for understanding current knowledge on the use of non-intrusive Mobile Sensing methodologies for emotion recognition in Smartphone devices. We examined the literature on experimental case studies conducted in the domain during the past six years (2015–2020). Search terms identified 95 candidate articles, but inclusion criteria limited the key studies to 30. We analyzed the research objectives (in terms of targeted emotions), the methodology (in terms of input modalities and prediction models) and the findings (in terms of model performance) of these published papers and categorized them accordingly. We used qualitative methods to evaluate and interpret the findings of the collected studies. The results reveal the main research trends and gaps in the field. The study also discusses the research challenges and considers some practical implications for the design of emotion-aware systems within the context of Distance Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis revealed the necessity for teachers to have digital skills in order to effectively teach online. Teachers should be able to exploit, use, and apply digital technologies in all educational activities. This paper investigates teachers' perceptions regarding their digital skills for performing their teaching and professional responsibilities during the pandemic. More than eight hundred teachers participated in a survey regarding the use of digital technologies in their teaching and their professional responsibilities. Indicative digital tools that can be used by digital competent teachers are also presented to cover all areas of the teachers' professional activities. Their answers revealed that they mostly used digital tools for finding, evaluating, and developing educational resources as well for teaching. They also used digital tools for self-study, students' assessment, as well as interacting and communicating with students. However, they hardly used digital tools for other teaching activities such as feedback and final evaluation of the students, or revising the educational resources. Finally, they could not deal with long-term planning, management, and development of either their school or education in general. Although it is important for teachers to effectively respond to their daily emergent teaching responsibilities, consideration should also be given to the long-term planning and development of the digital school and digital education in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent years in the End-User Development (EUD) research there is a shift from the study of tools that focus on desktop graphical applications, to the development of EUD for web environments. To this end mouse and eye tracking methodologies are used to implicitly monitor the end-user behavior in real time. In this paper we explore the potential correlation between eye movements and end-user perception and acceptance in modern web-based EUD environments. The aim is to find out whether end-users’ perception and acceptance attributes can be reflected on their eye behavior when interacting with a web-based, database-driven EUD system. To check out our research hypotheses we have conducted a field test using a prototype EUD tool based on a natural language approach (named ‘simple talking’), to assist end-users in creating database-driven mobile applications. The results of the field test show significant correlations between eye behavior and acceptance and perception. Self-Efficacy is correlated to fixations of any kind. Risk-Perception is correlated to the increment of the pupil size. Perceived Ease-of-Use is correlated to fixations that turned into clicks and to the increment of the pupil size. And Perceived Usefulness is correlated to fixation duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquitous and cloud manufacturing systems have paved the way for the development of smart systems that can provide self-adaptive services to enhance quality of service and user experience, based on user and context awareness. However, current approaches to software adaptation have critical limitations when applied on software in a cloud environment, since cloud service engineers cannot be certain of the ‘nature’ of their users, regarding their needs and their evolution over time. This article proposes a user-centred framework that addresses self-adaptation of cloud services based on users’ distinct needs and requirements. It aims at leveraging existing human computer interaction approaches to explicitly and implicitly collect user-related data into the cloud. This collection later supports the delivery of adaptive cloud services, contextually relevant to users’ tasks and to their behavioural profiles. Such approaches have the potential to enhance the quality of cloud applications’ service and user experience in cloud-based manufacturing systems. A first prototype demonstration is also presented as a future platform composed of the first basic models (of the ones mentioned in this article) .Then, the platform will be further expanded for instantiation and evaluation in the context of cloud and ubiquitous computing environments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The literature provides rich evidence on students' levels of digital skills as well as on their frequency of Internet and social media use. Several studies have examined the relationships between social media use and academic achievement. However, there are not any studies investigating the relationships between social media use and digital skills of higher education students. To fill this research gap, this study examines the links between the frequency of social media use and students' digital skills. The survey was conducted with 155 university students in Greece. The instrument on six digital skills components was evaluated in terms of reliability and consistency. The research findings reveal a strong positive association between the use of YouTube and students' digital skills on content evaluation and protection. Age and educational level differences were noted in several digital skills components, whereas age and gender were related to the frequency of Instagram use. The main conclusion is that the generic use of Facebook and Instagram does not affect students' digital skills. However, combined literature evidence implies that when social media are used for educational purposes, they might influence students' perceived levels of digital skills. Implications and limitations are discussed in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A self-administered measurement tool was developed and validated to provide data regarding ethical attitude of university teachers for a sustainable education. The research was based on several factors involved in forming attitudes towards the unethical information technology use. The sample: 334 Romanian teachers' respondents who teach in the higher education system contributed to this research. A successions of factor analyses and structural equation modeling showed that a second-order model is a good fit for experimental data (χ2/df = 1.75, comparative fit index = 0.958, root mean square error of approximation = 0.045), however the partial least square (PLS-SEM) CFA approach revealed higher scores of factor loadings, implying the best fit to the model. This research suggested a structural model of ethical attitude of university teachers, composed by four factors measured by 13 indices. The results demonstrated that PLS-SEM CFA is appropriate for creating a valid structural model to measure university teachers' ICT ethical attitude. The current research predicted a theoretical contribution to the field of ethical attitude of university teachers within a sustainable education context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]