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High dropout rates constitute a major concern for higher education institutions, due to their economic and academic impact. The problem is particularly relevant for institutions offering online courses, where withdrawal ratios are reported to be higher. Both the impact and these high rates motivate the implementation of interventions oriented to reduce course withdrawal and overall institutional dropout. In this paper, we address the identification of populations of learners at risk of withdrawing from higher education online courses. This identification is oriented to design interventions and is carried out using survival analysis. We demonstrate that the method’s longitudinal approach is particularly suited for this purpose and provides a clear view of risk differences among learner populations. Additionally, the method quantifies the impact of underlying factors, either alone or in combination. Our practical implementation used an open dataset provided by The Open University. It includes data from more than 30,000 students enrolled in different courses. We conclude that low-income students and those who report a disability comprise risk groups and are thus feasible intervention targets. The survival curves also reveal differences among courses and show the detrimental effect of early dropout on low-income students, worsened throughout the course for disabled students. Intervention strategies are proposed as a result of these findings. Extending the entire refund period and giving greater academic support to students who report disability are two proposed strategies for reducing course withdrawal.

Innovative, pedagogically informed instructional design is instrumental in increasing student engagement and improving learning outcomes in online learning environments. Interactive learning resources provide students with the opportunity to engage with content in a more personalised manner. H5P (HTML 5 Package) is a collaborative platform that allows developers to create interactive content and has been regularly used in education settings. Some evidence suggests using interactive H5P resources in online education courses could lead to greater student engagement. However, to date, there has been little investigation into whether H5P resources can improve student learning outcomes. The current study aimed to assess whether using interactive H5P resources improved assessed learning outcomes in an online undergraduate psychology course. A randomized cross-over design was utilized to test whether students exposed to H5P interactive videos had improved assessment results when compared to a control group. This study found no meaningful differences in assessment scores between students exposed to H5P versus those that were not. There was low overall engagement with the interactive content. However, students who did engage with the resources reported a positive experience and indicated a preference for more interactive elements in future courses. Future research should extend on the instructional design obstacles identified in this study, for example, by examining whether improved accessibility and education on the benefits of interactive resources would increase engagement and grades.

In massive open online courses (MOOCs), recommendation relationships present a collection of associations that imply a new form of integration, such as an interdisciplinary synergy among diverse disciplines. This study took a computer science approach, using the susceptible-infected (SI) model to simulate the process of learners accessing courses within networks of MOOC offerings, and emphasized the potential effects of a network structure. The current low rate of access suggests that a ceiling effect influences learners’ access to learning online, given that there are thousands of courses freely available. Interdisciplinary networks were created by adding recommended courses into four disciplinary networks. The diversity of interdisciplinarity was measured by three attributes, namely variety, balance, and disparity. The results attest to interesting changes in how the diversity of interdisciplinary knowledge grows. Particularly remarkable is the degree to which the diversity of interdisciplinarity increased when new recommended courses were first added. However, changing diversity implied that neighbouring disciplines were more likely to come to the forefront to attach to the interdisciplinarity of MOOC offerings, and that the pace of synergy among disparate disciplines slowed as time passed. In the absence of domain experts, expert knowledge is not sufficient to support interdisciplinary curriculum design. More evidence-based analytics studies showing how interdisciplinarity evolves in course offerings could help us to better design online courses that prepare learners with 21st-century skills.

Architectural education requires students to work as a group under the supervision of a teacher in the same physical environment since they need interaction to learn how to do a set of measurements in practice. However, a number of obstacles, such as pandemic situations, weather conditions, and the crowdedness of working sites, do not allow them to be and work together in a physical environment. Existing digital solutions, such as online and distance education, do not provide the required immersive and collaborative learning environment to assist students to practice in the same virtual environment. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to develop an immersive architectural educational environment, named VRArchEducation, using Virtual Reality (VR). Specifically, we design and implement a system that allows students and teachers to enjoy direct and simultaneous interaction through their virtual avatars regardless of their current physical location. Furthermore, the proposed VRArchEducation will enable users to have hands-on immersive experience while performing a set of measurement tasks. VRArchEducation presents four virtual fundamental measurement tools: water level hose, plumb, measurement tape, and a sketching board. Using these tools, students can perform a building survey process together in the VRArchEducation system just like in a traditional class environment. We conduct a user study to evaluate the system's effectiveness, success, accuracy, and usability. The proposed VRArchEducation has a great potential to be used in architectural education as an alternative to the traditional environment. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we founded an Online Laboratory School (OLS) under the roof of a university in Turkey to support students from public schools that were not technologically prepared for an online education and to provide an opportunity for our pre-service teachers (PSTs) to continue their internship by teaching online. The purpose of this research, consisting of two studies, was to examine experiences of 43 PSTs (first-, third- and fourth-years) during the OLS period of 8 weeks and how the OLS affected their mathematics teaching anxiety during Fall 2020. In the first study, we administered a survey to inquire into PSTs’ views on their experiences at the OLS, and in the second study we examined their mathematics teaching anxiety before and after the OLS experience using another survey. One main result was that the OLS experience served as an effective introduction to the profession for first-year PSTs and fourth- and third-year PSTs reported learning in-depth about online teaching in terms of the planning, teaching, and reflecting cycle. Another main result was that PSTs had mathematics teaching anxiety from “a little” to “a moderate amount” before the OLS and their teaching anxiety did not significantly change during the OLS period of 8 weeks. PSTs experienced highest mathematics teaching anxiety when they were observed and evaluated by supervisors during their teaching. The implications of these findings are discussed for teacher education programs. WOS:000878972100011 2-s2.0-85141368991 Kasım

As students transition into tertiary blended learning environments, their digital literacy in terms of technical capabilities have potential to impact on their access to digital resources. The first foundational year of STEM degrees includes compulsory courses across a broad range of scientific areas, each of which incorporates online technology in a discipline-specific manner. Given the diversity of online resources that STEM students need to access across their first-year coursework, this study applies learning analytical methods to determine whether students’ perceived level of digital literacy has an effect on their navigation of learning management systems (LMS) and overall academic performance. The frequency and nature of LMS interactivity were examined across four first-year STEM courses offered in the same semester at a single institution, using a K-means cluster analysis to group student responses. It was observed that high achieving students accessed LMS resources more frequently than mid or low-achieving students across all four STEM courses. Students’ perceived level of digital literacy was collected via survey (n = 282), and students were sorted high (n = 106) and low-level (n = 176) of perceived digital literacy—HDL and LDL, respectively. HDL students were not consistently found in the high-achieving academic group and did not perform better in their overall grade when compared to LDL students. LDL students were observed to perform better in specific online assessment tasks, which may be attributed to their increased frequency of LMS interactivity. These findings highlight the delicate balance between students’ perceived level of digital literacy, motivation for engaging with online learning environments, and academic performance.

Online learning has given access to education for diverse populations including students with disabilities. In our university, the ratio of students with disabilities is substantially higher in the online programmes than face-to-face. Online learning provides high accessibility though it can result in a lonely experience. Accordingly, this study aimed to appraise the first-hand experience and understanding of loneliness in online students with disabilities (OSWD), and to discuss possible solutions. Thematic analysis on semi-structured interviews attended by nine OSWD identified: ‘Self-paced study can reduce stigma but cause loneliness (Theme 1)’, ‘Loneliness and social difficulties relate to misunderstanding of disability (Theme 2)’, and ‘Activities, events and staff for informal socialisation are needed (Theme 3)’. As the demand for online learning is further expanded due to the current global pandemic, our findings will be helpful for online learning institutions worldwide to establish effective strategies to reduce loneliness in OSWD. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41239-021-00301-x.

Group awareness tools that implicitly guide users by presenting information about intangible cognitive (e.g., knowledge) and emotional (e.g., friendliness) group aspects have different effects in educational online collaboration. Prior research has focused on smaller group settings, with examining different tools separately or in combination without systematically disentangling their specific effects. Social media learning communities may particularly benefit from combining cognitive and emotional group awareness support, as emotional processes are closely related to cognitive processes in such settings. To systematically test this, we conducted a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment (N = 148), in which participants were provided with a wiki-like environment and, except for the control condition, dynamic cognitive (based on knowledge tests) and/or emotional (based on sentiment analysis) group awareness information. As a theoretical implication, the results provide insights into the positive effects of single cognitive group awareness information on produced content quality by highlighting different knowledge levels. Single emotional group awareness information moreover positively affects the friendliness of exchange processes, which depends on the learners’ need for affect. Neither single cognitive group awareness support nor the interaction with emotional group awareness support reveals direct positive effects on learning posttest performance. However, emotional group awareness tools have the potential to indirectly affect well-being and learning posttest performance, mediated via friendly interactions. As a practical implication, knowledge bar visualizations should be considered to improve outcome quality in social media collaboration. Besides, the use of dynamic sentiment analysis for assessing and visualizing different friendliness levels promotes discussions in a polite and respectful manner. CA extern und CA Ollesch und CA Bodemer

Responding to the lack of longitudinal analyses on media usage in higher education, this study explores the changes of higher education students’ access to and use of technology for learning in 2012, 2015 and 2018. Using an online questionnaire, a total of 5,572 German higher education students participated. Via descriptive and inferential analysis, the data show a clear trend towards using flexible, location-independent devices, accompanied by a rapid increase in the use of instant messaging. This is in line with an increasing demand for digital and flexible learning opportunities such as web-based training and lectures as podcasts or vodcasts, which is not met by higher education institutions. On that basis, improvements in development and application of these digital tools seem crucial for German higher education institutions and should be considered by educational technologists and decision makers. Of particular relevance against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic that started in Spring 2020, this longitudinal analysis provides a framework for the ongoing development and implementation of digital media in teaching and learning at higher education institutions., Dolch, C., Zawacki-Richter, O., Bond, M., & Marín, V. I. (2021). Higher education students' media usage: A longitudinal analysis. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 16(1), 30-54. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4585372

An accurate analysis of user behaviour in online learning environments is a useful means of early follow up of students, so that they can be better supported to improve their performance and achieve the expected competences. However, that task becomes challenging due to the massive data that learning management systems store and categories. With the COVID-19 pandemic still on-going, face-to-face learning settings have migrate into online and blended ones, meaning an increase of online students and teachers in need for a tailored and effective support to their needs. A novel unsupervised clustering technique based on the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) artificial neural network model is used in this research to analyse 1,709,189 records of online students enrolled from 2015 to 2019 at Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), a fully online Higher Education institution. SOM performs a precise and diverse user clustering based on those records. Results highlight that specific clusters are linked to the intake average profile at the university, with a clear relation between user interaction and a higher performance. Further, results show that, out of a targeted desk research compared to the analysis in this paper, face-to-face and online settings are connected through the methodological approach beyond the technology-based environment, which presents a similar behaviour in both contexts.

Special Issue: Mobile Technology, Gamification and Artificial Intelligence to Improve Sustainability in Education The data presented in this study are not available in accordance with Regulation (EU) of the European Parliament and of the Council 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 regarding the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and the free circulation of these data (RGPD) [Abstract] Gamification along with a whole range of other active methodologies are being incorporated into university classrooms due to their potential benefits for student learning. The aim of this paper was to analyse how a multimodal learning environment based on gamification could affect the final grades of university students in a subject taught at the Faculty of Education in a spanish university. The research was made up of 133 Spanish university students (Mage = 19.60; SDage = 0.43 years old). A quasi-experimental post-test design with a control group was used. The control group and the intervention group consisted of 66 and 67 students respectively. A multimodal gamified learning environment was set up for the intervention group, in contrast to traditional teaching methods which were reserved for the control group. Each one was implemented throughout an academic year. The results revealed statistically significant differences in the final average grade (p < 0.001), with students from the intervention group obtaining higher overall scores. The same occurred in the voluntary learning tasks, with students from the intervention group earning more Health Points (p = 0.006), more Experience Points (p = 0.005), a higher Total Score (p = 0.002) and a higher Level Achieved (p = 0.002). These findings point to the fact that a multimodal gamified learning environment can influence the academic performance of students. However, more scientific research has to be carried out in order to support these findings.

The purpose of this study was to determine what factors of the Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS), an ITS, are predictive of struggling learners’ performance in a blended-learning Algebra 1 course at an inner city technical high school located in the northeastern U.S. Three variables (student retention, engagement time, and the ratio of topics mastered to topics practiced) were used to predict the degree of association on the criterion variable (mathematics competencies), as measured by final course progress grades in algebra, and the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSATm) math scores. A correlational predictive design was applied to assess the data of a purposive sample of 265 struggling students at the study site; multiple regression analysis was also used to investigate the predictability of these variables. Findings suggest that engagement time and the ratio of mastered to practiced topics were significant predictors of final course progress grades. Nevertheless, these factors were not significant contributors in predicting PSATm score. Retention was identified as the only statistically significant predictor of PSATm score. The results offer educators with additional insights that can facilitate improvements in mathematical content knowledge and promote higher graduation rates for struggling learners in high school mathematics., Highlights • Introduction addresses intelligent tutoring systems in blended learning settings to assist teaching and learning practices. • Focus on ALEKS intelligent tutoring system, learning achievement, and classroom dynamics. • Includes the analysis of 265 data logs in a predictive correlational design. • Main conclusion is that engagement time and the ratio of mastered to practiced topics were predictors of course grades. • Additional conclusion is that retention was identified as the only statistically significant predictor of PSATm score. • Main challenges were gathering and organizing the data., Distance education and online learning; Secondary education.

The process of transferring to online teaching during the pandemic COVID-19 lockdown has been a core issue for teachers around the globe. The main aim of this paper was to investigate the direct and indirect effects of emotional intelligence (EI) and general self-efficacy on the adaptability to online teaching (AOT). A multiple-mediation model was proposed, including the mediating effect via the teacher’s Facilitator role and teacher’s concrete experience learning style (CE-LS), as defined in experiential learning theory (ELT). Methods: Data were collected from a sample of 330 preschool and primary school teachers (84 males, Mage = 38.3, SD = 9.14). Path analysis was performed based on maximum likelihood estimation with the resampling method. Results: The findings showed that the proposed model fit the data well. A serial mediation path between EI and AOT via the teacher’s Facilitator role and CE-LS was obtained. In addition, CE-LS mediated the relationship between general self-efficacy and AOT. Conclusion: To date, this is the first study to analyse the direct and indirect effects of dispositional traits, such as EI and general self-efficacy, on AOT in the framework of Kolb’s ELT. Our results highlight the mediating mechanisms of this relationship, that is, the teacher’s Facilitator role and CE-LS. The current research provides an empirical body based on which new instructional strategies will be developed to improve the quality of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

This paper presents evidence on the impact of technology-aided instruction on literacy using an AI-based multi-sensory technology platform across a large cross-section of government schools in India. The study focused on reading and comprehension in the English language. The intervention enhances the instructional effectiveness of the teachers and the learning ability of the children within the existing instructional environment without any new instructional design or pedagogy or content. Besides, the intervention is implemented by existing teachers and not outside volunteers. A total of 1 million children and 15,000 teachers across 5000 government schools in the states of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat and Karnataka used the technology for the 2016-17 academic year. Using a randomized control-treatment assessment, the study finds a 20–40% overall gain in learning outcomes in the treatment sample. Gains within individual states and grades vary. Learning outcomes rose across the entire range of proficiency levels in a grade. Ongoing self-administered assessments report even higher impact in the 50–60% range. In addition, teachers also reported improving their skills as a result of using the technology, suggesting that the intervention can also alleviate teacher shortage and inadequate teacher training. The paper also reports briefly on the growing adoption of the program in several countries outside India. The results hold significant promise for disrupting the low and stagnating literacy levels across government schools in India and other similar environments.

While the hype around Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has subsided in the past few years, such environments provide a rich opportunity to explore ongoing questions at the intersection of teaching, learning, and technology. This paper explores how a set of facilitation teams described enacting their learner-centered pedagogical aspirations through MOOC platforms. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we present a set of six facilitator actions: “giving up control,” “distributing facilitation,” “being live,” “amplifying,” “modeling,” and “being explicit.” We discuss these actions as emerging from the negotiation between existing pedagogical aspirations and the realities of a new medium, highlighting how they involve facilitators both stepping back (making space for and foregrounding learner expertise and perspectives) and stepping in (intervening and directing as a facilitator). This research contributes to the ongoing work of articulating the substance and specificity of teaching in learner-centered pedagogy and the persistent challenges of enacting that pedagogy in massive, online spaces., Highlights • MOOCs are a valuable context for examining questions of teaching and learning. • MOOCs offer both opportunities and challenges for student-centered learning. • Facilitators both stepped back and stepped in to support student-centered learning. • Facilitators negotiated the MOOC affordances in light of prior design experiences.

In recent years, a strong investment has been made to equip schools with technology for educational purposes, leading to some transformations in teachers' practices. In this context, apart from traditional format, there are online platforms available for teachers to assign and monitor homework completed by students. Literature has described the benefits of online homework for teachers when compared with traditional homework. Still, evidence of the benefits for students when compared with traditional homework is scattered. Thus, the current study aimed to conduct a systematic review on online homework and traditional homework, with the goal of learning the methodological features of the studies comparing both homework formats and understanding which of the two benefits most students' performance. Following a review protocol, 31 studies were included and categories such as participants, duration of intervention, and course domain were described. Results showed that most studies used a convenience sample in a between-subject design, included college students, used non-standardized instruments, and presented a wide range of number of participants, duration of intervention, course domain, and approaches to implement the online homework. Additionally, half of the studies showed no differences in terms of student performance as a function of the format of delivery of homework. In nine studies students' performance was higher in the online compared with the traditional homework format, and only one study showed the opposite result. Lastly, six studies reported mixed results. Based on results, educational implications are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research., This study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER007653) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028302).