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The study aimed to investigate factors influencing students’ learning in a Block Mode Learning (BML) environment in higher education. Therefore, the study examined the development of and performed a user study on the 4Cs—critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration—which were integrated with BML as an effective and engaging learning aid. Another aim was to explore the challenges encountered by teachers in Block Mode Teaching (BMT) and to propose some recommendations for addressing those challenges. Therefore, a mixed-method approach was employed. First, we administered a survey and performed quantitative analysis with 58 student participants. Regression analysis was conducted to determine whether EI type influenced 4C skills in a BML environment. We identified the effects of different types of emotional intelligence (EI)—self-awareness, self-regulation, and social skill—on each of the 4Cs in a BML environment. Learner self-awareness and social skill were discovered to significantly influence 4C skills in the BML environment; self-awareness had the strongest effect. Conversely, self-regulation did not significantly influence the 4Cs. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that learner performance and each of the 4Cs were positively related to learning performance. Secondly, six teachers participated in a semi-structured interview to clarify their challenges in BMT. The collected data were analyzed in ATLAS.ti using an emergent thematic approach. The results uncovered three primary themes: education evaluation and feedback, lecture preparation intensity and fatigue management, and faculty development for personalized learning. Finally, recommendations and implications are provided.

Due to the emergency educational consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic, it is necessary to find an effective and alternative way of learning. Moreover, during this epidemic, the Chinese Ministry of Education announced the “Disrupted Classes, Undisrupted Learning” initiative, offering flexible online learning. With the aim of facilitating a sound learning environment when using online learning systems, various kinds of tools can be applied. Tencent Meeting is one tool that offers various learning features. This study aimed to investigate how students perceived the effect of the Tencent Meeting system features on the two main determinants of the TAM model, namely perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU). The study further analyzed the effects of these two determinants on learning performance. Data were analyzed using regression analysis. The study found the Tencent Meeting system features could account for 55.1% of PEOU and 40% of PU. Another finding shows that PEOU and PU had a significant effect on the students' learning performance. Finally, a discussions and implications are presented.

This study aimed to gain insights into the differences in perceptions of blog writing of two types of writers (i.e., digital natives [DNs] vs. digital immigrants [DIs]). The study focused on the generational literature and Web 2.0 as an online writing platform, investigating the generational differences in DN and DI writers' perceptions on a blog-based writing platform. The “WritingGen” blog was developed for this study to provide a web-based writing place to facilitate writers' writing and editing practices. An empirical study was conducted involving 34 Taiwanese blog writers with five hypotheses to be verified. Data were analyzed using independent samples t tests and logistic regression. The results revealed that the DN writers have significantly more positive attitudes toward blog writing, higher frequencies in blog-based writing behavior, perceived higher satisfaction, and higher knowledge acquisition than the DI writers. Based on these findings, pedagogical implications are provided.

This study investigated how individuals’ reading and writing habit levels contributed to their levels of learning effectiveness while participating in a learning blog. A survey was conducted to understand the relationship between individuals’ reading and writing habit levels (i.e., heavy or light) in terms of their attitudes and behavioral patterns, on the one hand, and the level of learning effectiveness (i.e., high or low) in a learning blog. Toward this end, a total of 73 readers and 56 writers participated in a blog, “Learner’s Digest”, developed for the purpose of the study with informative blog posts to facilitate meaningful learning. Hypotheses were tested and data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The results revealed significant relationships between heavy reading and writing habits and learning effectiveness. Discussion of the results and the implications of this study are also presented.

This study aimed to categorize learning analytics (LA) models and identify their relevant components by analyzing LA-related articles published between 2011 and 2019 in international journals. A total of 101 articles discussing various LA models were selected. These models were characterized according to their goals and components. A qualitative content analysis approach was used to develop a coding scheme for analyzing the aforementioned models. The results reveal that the studied LA models belong to five categories, namely performance, meta-cognitive, interactivity, communication, and data models. The majority of the selected LA-related articles were data models, followed by performance models. This review also identified 16 components that were commonly used in the studied models. The results indicate that analytics was the most common component in the studied models (used in 10 LA models). Furthermore, visualization was the most relevant component in the studied communication models.