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The increase in online education creates a need to explore how learning outcomes, student satisfaction, and student perceptions about online courses are affected by prior online learning experiences. This study examined the role of prior online learning experience on students' perceived cognitive presence, social presence, teaching presence, engagement, and satisfaction. The archival data of online learners at a large midwestern university (a total n=878), including survey responses related to Community of Inquiry (CoI), engagement, and satisfaction, were utilized to conduct statistical analyses to determine whether student responses differed by the number of online courses taken previously. We found that only social presence scores (CoI subscale) and emotional engagement scores (engagement sub-scale) differed by the number of the online courses taken. However, the effect size was small. We concluded that student satisfaction, engagement, and perceptions of cognitive and teaching presence are not related to prior online course experiences. Implications are discussed.

This study aimed to investigate the pre-service teachers' behavioural intentions about using gamification tools and the critical factors affecting their usage. The data were collected from 313 pre-service teachers from two large-scale universities in Turkey through a questionnaire with seven constructs: perceived ease of use, usefulness, self-efficacy, enjoyment, computer anxiety, attitude, and behavioural intention. Firstly, students were trained on the gamification method and Web 2.0 gamification tools (Kahoot!, Classdojo, and Jeopardylabs), then data were collected through a questionnaire. This study used the Technology Acceptance Model as a research framework. The data were analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that perceived self-efficacy and attitude factors had significant direct effects on pre-service teachers' behavioural intentions to use gamification tools. Furthermore, the perceived enjoyment and usefulness factors significantly affected preservice teachers' attitudes towards using gamification tools. Additionally, the perceived self-efficacy and attitude factors had significant direct effects on perceived enjoyment to use gamification tools. Moreover, indirect effects on the dependent variables were revealed. Eventually, six constructs accounted for 75% of the variance for intention to use gamification tools. As a result, the research model appeared to have a good fit. Based on the findings within the scope of this study, various suggestions for researchers and practitioners were presented.

This study aims to examine the online teaching processes of instructors in higher education in detail and reveal their online teaching competencies. The study employed a convergent parallel mixed method design, where the comparative method was used in the quantitative part of the research and the qualitative part was designed as a descriptive case study. The data were collected from 490 online instructors in various departments of a state university in Turkey. A questionnaire was used to reveal the instructors' practices, experiences, opinions, and online teaching competencies in the emergency remote teaching process. The results indicated that instructors mostly preferred Zoom for synchronous and Canvas for asynchronous applications in online education. The online teaching competencies of instructors in pedagogy, technology, and facilitation dimensions were found to be quite high, while course administration competencies were intermediate. According to the qualitative dimension of the research, most of the instructors reported a significant increase in workload due to online education. They also cited the advantages of online education as well as the pedagogical and technical difficulties encountered.

In providing effective online education, it is crucial that the instructors have the competence to teach online. The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable online teaching competency scale for online instructors. The data were collected from 392 instructors working in a big state university in Turkey (Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa). The instructors have conducted online courses through synchronous and asynchronous methods during the pandemic process. The development and evaluation process of the scale included exploratory factor analysis and convergent validity. The scale consists of 15 items and represents four factors of online instructors' competencies: pedagogy, facilitation, technology, and course administration. The total variance of the scale was found 64%. Internal consistency coefficient of the whole scale was found to be 0.83 according to reliability analysis. The results of the study revealed that the scale is valid and reliable for measuring instructors' online teaching competency. The implications of the study were discussed in detail.

Regarding the COVID 19 pandemic, the process should be analyzed very well in order to realize effective online education practices possessing high level communication and interaction in higher education. In this respect in this study, initially it is aimed to determine the satisfaction levels of higher education students towards online education during the pandemic process that affects the whole world and then to reveal the changes of these levels according to the variables such as gender, discipline, education level and grade level. A quantitative cross-sectional design was used in the study. The sample of the study consists of 13447 university students studying online in different faculties of Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa in the fall semester of 2020-2021. According to the results, the students' satisfaction with online education was at a moderate level. In addition, it was observed that students preferred Zoom from the synchronous platforms the most and Canvas from the asynchronous platforms in the online education process. On the other hand, satisfaction levels of female students differ significantly from male students, Science and Engineering and Social Sciences students were more satisfied with the process than the Medicine and Health Sciences students. 6th grade students' satisfaction with the process was higher than other grade levels, and graduate students' satisfaction differed significantly from undergraduate and associate degree students. Finally, the significant differences for all variables were at a low effect level. In the research, various suggestions were made for educators and future studies in order to create more effective online learning environments.

The aim of this study is to examine K12 students' preferences and attitudes on mobile learning. In this study, causal-comparative method was used. The sample of the study were 236 students (127 females, 109 males) at K12 level. The students are enrolled in primary (n=104), secondary (n=77), and high school (n=55) levels. The data in the study were collected through a questionnaire. According to the results, watching videos, playing music, playing games, taking a picture, accessing the Internet are the most common uses of mobile devices for the students. The students' attitudes towards mobile learning is highly positive. The male students' perceived ease of use towards mobile learning is higher than females. The secondary and high school students' perceived ease of use is higher than primary school students. Moreover, the high school students' desire for learning is higher than the others. Implications were discussed in terms of practices for mobile learning in K12, and directions for further research.

This study investigated the structural relationships among online learners' teaching, social, and cognitive presence, engagement, and satisfaction. Data were collected from graduate students enrolled in an online graduate program at a large midwestern public university through online surveys. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. According to the results, teaching presence, cognitive presence, emotional engagement, behavioral engagement, and cognitive engagement were significant predictors of satisfaction, and these determinants explained 88% of the variance in satisfaction. The results indicate that the dominant determinant of the satisfaction was teaching presence, which had direct and indirect effects on satisfaction. Moreover, the study revealed significant predictors of emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and agentic engagement. Implications are discussed in terms of theoretical insights, practices for online learning environments, and further research directions.

Educational robotics is a very important instrument because it provides an active learning environment and allows learners to acquire 21st century skills. Teachers need to use this instrument in teaching the science of robotics as well as in helping students master the subject and gain experience. This study aims to reveal pre-service teachers? perceptions and experiences in an educational robotics course. Specifically, the satisfaction, motivation, enjoyment, collaboration, and challenge (SMECC) levels of participants were investigated in this robotics learning process. In addition, pre-service teachers' engagements were revealed. The participants were 30 pre-service teachers. A post activity survey, observation, and interview were used as data collection tools. This study adopted a mixed method approach. The pre-service teachers showed a high level of satisfaction, motivation, enjoyment, and collaboration and also showed no difficulty doing the robotics activities in general. Moreover, strong relationships were found among satisfaction, motivation, and enjoyment. The findings indicated that the ER activities provided an edutainment learning environment and that pre-service teachers were highly engaged in the robotics activities. The most motivating factor for the preservice teachers was teaching what they had learned about the science of robotics to their future students. The pre-service teachers' experiences and engagements are revealed in detail and also discussed. Suggestions are presented here for guiding future educational robotics studies in the context of pre-service teachers' education.

Distance education offers flexible learning opportunities in terms of time, place and learning speed to teachers and students through internet technologies. However, the learning opportunities provided in distance education environments require students to act more autonomously and take more responsibility for regulating their learning processes to achieve their learning goals. For this reason, it is crucial to reveal the relationships between flexibility, self-regulated effort and satisfaction factors to provide efficient and effective learning environments in distance education. Accordingly, within the scope of this study, it is aimed to investigate university students' perceptions of flexibility, self-regulated effort and satisfaction with the distance education process, and their views on distance education. Survey research was used as the research method in the study. The study sample consisted of 1760 university students studying at 28 different universities. Data were analysed using t-test, ANOVA, and regression methods. As a result of the study, male students were more satisfied with distance education than female students, and education faculty students had the highest level of satisfaction. In addition, self-regulated effort and flexibility variables were significant factors affecting students' satisfaction towards distance education. Furthermore, the advantages and problems of distance education and suggestions for future distance learning environments were presented in the light of students views. Finally, the study's implications and various recommendations for practitioners and researchers were discussed in detail.

The aim of this study was to reveal pre-service teachers' experiences in learning robotics design and programming. Data were collected from 15 pre-service teachers through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the content analysis method. Three themes were identified in this study: Course process, professional development and teaching children. The pre-service teachers indicated that they found opportunities to learn by doing and experience, enjoyed doing robotics activities and felt in flow in this process. They also expressed that the robotics programming course positively influenced their attitudes towards programming and improved their programming skills. They emphasized the importance of keeping their intrinsic motivation high by maintaining their individual efforts to solve problems. Moreover, they made various suggestions for teaching robotics to children. Implications are discussed in terms of practices for educational robotics in teacher training, and further research directions.

Virtual classroom (VC) is the preferred application in distance education since it provides simultaneous interaction and a communication environment between the student and the instructor. The aim of this study is to determine the key components which make VC sessions effective in terms of environment and method. Determination of these components and their effects through experiences of VC is important to improve the design and management of VC sessions. In this case study, VC experiences at theology bachelor's completion degree distance education program are examined. Semistructured interviews were performed with 20 participants (8 instructors, 10 students, 2 technical staff) of this program, which had regular VC sessions. Data were analyzed by using content analysis. This study reveals that VC sessions should be well planned and includes interactive activities in addition to good technical support. The instructional techniques that are of importance for VCs are considered to be active participation of students, summarization of material, attraction of students' attention and high association with real life. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

The purpose of this study is to examine Turkish educational technology studies in the academic literature within the scope of SSCI, and to reveal methodological trends within these studies. For this purpose, 460 Turkey-addressed articles, published between the years of 2000-2009 in 32 international journals, within the scope of 2010 SSCI were collected as data through ETPCF. The data were examined via content analysis and presented using descriptive statistical methods. According to the results, "educational environments" and "technology" were the topics mostly focused on in the articles. Regarding the research methods, quantitative analysis was generally used in these studies. Questionnaires were used as a data collection tool, and convenience sampling methods were also used widely. Descriptive analyses were mainly preferred as a data analysis method. The results coming out of this study will be helpful for directing the future studies.

The increase in online education creates a need to explore how learning outcomes, student satisfaction, and student perceptions about online courses are affected by prior online learning experiences. This study examined the role of prior online learning experience on students' perceived cognitive presence, social presence, teaching presence, engagement, and satisfaction. The archival data of online learners at a large midwestern university (a total n=878), including survey responses related to Community of Inquiry (CoI), engagement, and satisfaction, were utilized to conduct statistical analyses to determine whether student responses differed by the number of online courses taken previously. We found that only social presence scores (CoI subscale) and emotional engagement scores (engagement sub-scale) differed by the number of the online courses taken. However, the effect size was small. We concluded that student satisfaction, engagement, and perceptions of cognitive and teaching presence are not related to prior online course experiences. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term effects of amino acids other than methionine in mitotic and postmitotic tissue of rats by measuring mitochondrial peroxide and superoxide production as well as oxidative protein and DNA damage in the liver and heart of rats fed with either a normal diet (ND) or a protein-restricted diet (PREMD). Methods: The study group comprised 4- and 12-month-old rats fed with either a ND or a PREMD for 4 months. The rate of mitochondrial peroxide and superoxide production, and the protein carbonyl (PC) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) levels in the liver and heart mitochondria were measured. Results: The mitochondrial peroxide and superoxide production rates of the liver and heart mitochondria of rats did not demonstrate any significant difference based on the diet provided. Similarly, diet did not have a significant effect on the PC level in the liver and heart mitochondria of either age group. In the 16-month-old rats, the mtDNA 8-OHdG level was significantly higher in the heart than the liver, regardless of the diet. Conclusion: Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production, and oxidative protein and DNA damage increased in mitotic and postmitotic tissue with age; however, the increment was more prominent in the heart than the liver. Longterm PREMD consumption did not decelerate oxidative damage in the heart or in the liver with age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]