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Learning is a lifelong process. That's something career and technical educators are always telling their students, but through their professional development activities they are also practicing what they are preaching. Why is professional development so important? According to the U.S. Department of Education initiative "Building Bridges: The Mission and Principles of Professional Development," professional development can play an important part in successful education reform, and its mission should be "to prepare and support educators to help all students achieve to high standards of learning and development." According to "Building Bridges," the principles of high-quality professional development are: (1) It focuses on teachers as central to student learning, yet includes all other members of the school community; (2) It focuses on individual, collegial and organizational improvement; (3) It respects and nurtures the intellectual and leadership capacity of teachers, principals and others in the school community; (4) It reflects the best available research and practice in teaching, learning and leadership; (5) It enables teachers to develop further expertise in subject content, teaching strategies, uses of technologies and other essential elements in teaching to high standards; (6) It promotes continuous inquiry and improvement embedded in the daily life of schools; (7) It is planned collaboratively by those who will participate in and facilitate that development; (8) It requires substantial time and other resources; (9) It is driven by a coherent long-term plan; and (10) It is evaluated ultimately on the basis of its impact on teacher effectiveness and student learning; and this assessment guides subsequent professional development efforts.

Following trends in entertainment streaming services, online educational platforms are increasingly offering users flexible "on-demand" content options. It is important to understand how the timing of content release affects learning behaviors and firm revenue drivers. The current research studies over 67,000 users taking a marketing course before versus after a natural experiment in which the platform switched the course from a scheduled weekly-release format to an on-demand format with all content immediately available. The switch to on-demand positively impacted short-term firm revenue by increasing the number and proportion of certificate-paying users, suggesting that on-demand content can attract a broader set of consumers who value flexibility. On the downside, the switch resulted in users exhibiting lower lecture completion rates and quiz performance and taking fewer additional business courses on the platform, representing a long-term cost. The results were robust to propensity score matching and stratification. The analyses also revealed that on-demand content enabled learning patterns that deviated from a standard evenly paced schedule, including "strategic" binge learning and stretching out engagement past the recommended course period. Thus, while on-demand formats can boost revenues by bringing in more paying users, managers must consider new strategies for maintaining performance and engagement levels within these environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary digital age, continued online learning behaviors have become indispensable for fostering employee development. However, the learning and development literature predominantly focuses on traditional instructor‐led approaches. It remains unclear how organizations can shape employees' learning behaviors, particularly in the context of online learning. The current study clarifies this underexplored research area by investigating how organizational investment in employee developmental climate (IEDC) can promote employees' continued online learning behaviors. Drawing on social influence theory and employing a multilevel research design, we find empirical support for our research model, which specifies that IEDC positively affects employees' continued online learning behaviors through the effect of normative pressure. The findings also reveal the moderating role of online learning facilitating conditions. Specifically, in firms characterized by higher levels of online learning facilitating conditions, the positive relationship between IEDC and normative pressure becomes more pronounced when compared to organizations with lower levels of such facilitating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although educators in the field of kinesiology implement online education in various forms, online education rarely receives attention in literature. The purpose of this study is to explore online courses in the subject matter of kinesiology through the community of inquiry framework. This mixed-method study adopted a multiple case study approach collecting data using survey, learning management system analysis, and semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data revealed that instructors shared high intentions toward the implementation of teaching and cognitive presences. The online instructors expressed much lower levels of intentions to support the social presence. The authors suggest online instructors be mindful of students' engagement that is bound to the interplay of different types of learning activities. This study is expected to serve as a meaningful contribution to the understanding of the status of online teaching and learning in the field of kinesiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove novel algorithmic guarantees for several online problems in the smoothed analysis model. In this model, at each time step an adversary chooses an input distribution with density function bounded above pointwise by \(\tfrac{1}{\sigma }\) times that of the uniform distribution; nature then samples an input from this distribution. Here, σ is a parameter that interpolates between the extremes of worst-case and average case analysis. Crucially, our results hold for adaptive adversaries that can base their choice of input distribution on the decisions of the algorithm and the realizations of the inputs in the previous time steps. An adaptive adversary can nontrivially correlate inputs at different time steps with each other and with the algorithm's current state; this appears to rule out the standard proof approaches in smoothed analysis. This paper presents a general technique for proving smoothed algorithmic guarantees against adaptive adversaries, in effect reducing the setting of an adaptive adversary to the much simpler case of an oblivious adversary (i.e., an adversary that commits in advance to the entire sequence of input distributions). We apply this technique to prove strong smoothed guarantees for three different problems: (1) Online learning: We consider the online prediction problem, where instances are generated from an adaptive sequence of σ-smooth distributions and the hypothesis class has VC dimension d. We bound the regret by \(\tilde{O}(\sqrt {T d\ln (1/\sigma)} + d\ln (T/\sigma))\) and provide a near-matching lower bound. Our result shows that under smoothed analysis, learnability against adaptive adversaries is characterized by the finiteness of the VC dimension. This is as opposed to the worst-case analysis, where online learnability is characterized by Littlestone dimension (which is infinite even in the extremely restricted case of one-dimensional threshold functions). Our results fully answer an open question of Rakhlin et al. [64]. (2) Online discrepancy minimization: We consider the setting of the online Komlós problem, where the input is generated from an adaptive sequence of σ-smooth and isotropic distributions on the ℓ2 unit ball. We bound the ℓ∞ norm of the discrepancy vector by \(\tilde{O}(\ln ^2(\frac{nT}{\sigma }))\). This is as opposed to the worst-case analysis, where the tight discrepancy bound is \(\Theta (\sqrt {T/n})\). We show such \(\mathrm{polylog}(nT/\sigma)\) discrepancy guarantees are not achievable for non-isotropic σ-smooth distributions. (3) Dispersion in online optimization: We consider online optimization with piecewise Lipschitz functions where functions with ℓ discontinuities are chosen by a smoothed adaptive adversary and show that the resulting sequence is \(({\sigma }/{\sqrt {T\ell }}, \tilde{O}(\sqrt {T\ell }))\) -dispersed. That is, every ball of radius \({\sigma }/{\sqrt {T\ell }}\) is split by \(\tilde{O}(\sqrt {T\ell })\) of the partitions made by these functions. This result matches the dispersion parameters of Balcan et al. [13] for oblivious smooth adversaries, up to logarithmic factors. On the other hand, worst-case sequences are trivially (0, T)-dispersed.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted traditional pedagogies and modalities for facilitating instruction to all students, including those enrolled in higher education courses. Given the disruptions to in-person learning and the growing interest in distance education, higher education institutions are increasing the number of asynchronous online and blended courses in educational programs. This increase also coincides with the growing numbers of diverse students, including those from multilingual backgrounds, across college campuses in the United States. Student diversity calls for more inclusive instructional delivery modes. This article describes Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework designed to enhance teaching and learning for all students. It also explains how university faculty can implement UDL in online courses in higher education and in preservice teacher preparation courses. Finally, the article discusses the implications of UDL implementation for multilingual students enrolled in higher education courses.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced educational practitioners, students (PreK–12), and families to adjust to synchronous and asynchronous online instruction. This study followed an online intervention involving a Spanish-English preschool special education teacher, a Spanish-speaking parent, and her bilingual preschool child with complex communication needs (CCN). Students with CCN frequently require an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system to compensate for severe developmental language disorders. Over a six-week period, the parent and teacher collectively introduced the preschooler to a low-technology AAC option: a picture exchange communication system in English and Spanish. Overall, the parent developed an increased understanding of her child’s communicative intent and reported high levels of satisfaction with utilizing AAC to meet her child’s bilingual language needs. Even though the pandemic caused many learning challenges, this single-subject study highlights the effectiveness of a parent-centered and culturally relevant instructional approach for a bilingual preschooler with CCN.

ABSTRACT Digital transformation, through innovation in information and communication technologies (ICTs), impacts higher education (HE) and fosters knowledge sharing (KS). While research explores the implications of digital transformation in HE, its specific influence on KS remains understudied. This systematic literature review investigates the nexus between ICTs and KS in HE by examining peer‐reviewed literature prior to the AI boom. Three databases were searched, yielding 473 journal articles, which were screened, eligibility checked and assessed for quality and relevance to predetermined research questions. Eighteen eligible empirical studies were analysed, revealing ICTs influence on KS across university functions: teaching‐learning, governance/operations and research. Retrospectively, this study also demonstrates that the rapid pivot to fully online functions during the pandemic was possible because of prior ICT advancements despite known barriers (e.g., digital literacy, Internet connectivity). Essentially, ICTs enable vital KS for universities to ensure they remain resilient and sustainable now and into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its importance, research on the dynamic nature of student engagement and its relationship with academic success is limited. In this study, we investigate the consistency of student engagement and its relationship to academic achievement. We conduct an analysis of digital trace data on students’ interaction with webinars. Specifically, we examine the attendance records of 426 high school students participating in the online literature course designed to prepare them for university enrolment. We demonstrate engagement’s path dependency as well as categorise different types of engagement strategies. We found that stable strategies do not lead to more engagement, however adaptive strategies do lead to greater engagement. Importantly, higher levels of engagement lead to better student achievement. These results demonstrating the strategic path-dependent nature of engagement, as well as give insight to the importance of engagement in online learning when considering students’ learning paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online learning is perceived differently by students than face-to-face or traditional learning. Because the pandemic has sickened many people, students can still attend school whenever they want. Online math classes are less popular with students who aren't ready to learn in a new way. This study examined whether math attitudes affect online learning readiness. The study looked at 153 STEM high school students' performance in an entirely online math class. We used self-reporting tools like the OLRS, ATMI, and the online learning satisfactory scale to gather data (OLSS). According to OLS regression-based path analysis and simple mediation analysis, students who were ready to learn math online were satisfied with the subject mathematics. An online learner has a positive attitude towards math, which leads to a high level of satisfaction. Also, math attitudes were found to be a "mediator" between online learning reading and math satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Objective Methods Results Discussion Health practitioners report limited skills and lack of confidence in managing and treating people with eating disorders. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the national rollout of comprehensive basic training in identification, assessment, treatment, and management of people with eating disorders to clinicians.The Essentials: Training Clinicians in Eating Disorders is a core competency eLearning program. As part of a nation‐wide multidisciplinary workforce training strategy, 7500 course places were provided free of charge to public and private health care professionals across all jurisdictions of Australia between January 2020 and March 2022.A total of 7370 health professionals enrolled during the study period. All learning outcomes showed improvement with large effect (Cohen's d = 1.2–2), with the largest improvements for self‐reported knowledge of requirements for working with children and adolescents. Effects did not depend on years of working with eating disorders suggesting that the training was beneficial across levels of experience. Those who started with very low knowledge of eating disorders or higher willingness to treat eating disorders were most likely to complete the course. Most participants reported that the course was relevant to their clinical practice, that they expected their clinical practices to change, and that they would recommend the course to other health professionals.The strategy to provide government‐funded core competency training in eating disorder care to healthcare professionals met key objectives by reaching health professionals eligible to provide government‐rebated services in public and private settings across all jurisdictions including regional and remote areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethical codes are written documents that delineate a set of rules and principles that guide the duties and responsibilities of professionals within a professional organization from an ethical perspective. The research aims to develop an ethical code framework for instructors engaged in distance education. The Delphi, a qualitative research method, was employed to achieve this aim. The study included 22 distance education experts, selected via purposive sampling. The Delphi technique, conducted in three rounds, commenced with an evaluation of the ethical dimensions of distance education. In the study’s second phase, we invited participants to suggest additional ethical codes for the agreed-upon dimensions. We collected the suggestions and agreed on specific ethical code items in the third round. The researchers thus established the final form of the ethical code list. This process resulted in developing an ethical code framework for instructors engaged in distance education. The framework comprises sixdimensions: Instructional Design (ID), Social Interaction (SI), Content Provision (CP), Technology Usage (TU), Management (M), and Assessment and Evaluation (AE). It includes 62 ethical code items. The study demonstrates that the ethical code dimensions align with the roles of online instructors, as described in the relevant literature. This alignment substantiates the ethical code framework's validity and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Objectives Methods Results Conclusion Online synchronous learning in higher education frequently struggles to overcome the social presence gap, resulting in dissatisfaction and poor learning outcomes.This study examined the effectiveness of desktop‐based virtual reality (VR) social platforms compared to video conferencing (VC) platforms in enhancing students' learning gains and experiences in online synchronous learning.The study used a within‐subject design, involving 34 college students in two online lecture modules, one via a VR social platform and another through a VC platform. Knowledge assessments occurred pre‐ and post‐modules and after 1 week. Students also completed post‐module questionnaires to evaluate their learning experience, in terms of social presence, easiness of use and perceived emotions. In‐depth interviews provided further insights into their experiences with both platforms.The study showed that using VR social platforms for online synchronous learning enhanced immediate knowledge, especially in students less interested in the content, yet it did not notably impact long‐term knowledge retention. Despite no significant findings in social presence from questionnaires, interviews indicated that the VR's heightened interactivity might be offset by the effect of not seeing others' real appearances in promoting social presence. Furthermore, the VC platform was found to be easier to use, attributed to its familiarity and user‐friendliness. Finally, students experienced increased fun, awe and interest, along with reduced boredom, when using the VR social platform.The findings highlight the potential of VR to enrich online learning while underscoring the need for effective strategies facilitating a smooth integration into educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In recent years, numerous studies have compared traditional face-to-face (F2F) learning on campus with online learning, seeking to establish how the learning environment (online vs. F2F) affects outcomes such as student satisfaction and achievement. In a separate line of research, scholars have examined various facets of active learning--an approach that makes use of interactive learning methods--separately in online and F2F environments. However, few studies have compared the effects of active learning in classes taught online vs. F2F. The present study addresses this gap. It follows an earlier study in which we examined the effects of active learning in an online environment, particularly how the extent and variety of interactive teaching methods used affect students' course evaluations (overall evaluations and perceived clarity of the teaching). Methods: The present study repeats the setup of that previous study in a F2F environment, allowing us both to gain new insights into the effects of active learning in this context and to directly compare the examined outcomes in F2F vs. online learning. Results: The results reveal consistent trends in both studies: more extensive and more varied use of interactive learning methods improves overall student evaluations and perceptions of the clarity of teaching in the course. Crucially, minimal use of interactive teaching methods results in notably lower student evaluations and perceptions of teaching clarity in F2F settings compared to online classes. Discussion: The findings highlight the essential need for instructors to adopt diverse interactive methods in F2F environments to improve educational outcomes and reinforce the effectiveness of active learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research was to evaluate the Scientific Research Project Design Workshop (TDPIC), aimed at the teaching staff of the Tecnológico Nacional de México (TECNM), and focused on the Research Design Canvas model for the design of research projects. This case study is intrinsic, with a quantitative methodology of descriptive and explanatory scope. The workshop was conducted with an instructional design following the ADDIE model in a virtual learning environment (VLE), and considered a sample of 17 teachers who attended the workshop, belonging to five TECNM technology centres. At the end of the workshop, a survey was applied to the participants in order to measure their satisfaction with the digital resources used, the achievement of significant learning and the understanding of the method explained; this evaluation was positive, as the teachers indicated a high degree of satisfaction in the different dimensions of the workshop. It is concluded that the TDPIC was relevant and favoured the training process of the participating teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online learning has developed rapidly and billions of learners have participated in various courses. However, the high dropout rate is universal and learning performance is not satisfactory. Fortunately, learners have posted a large number of reviews which express their feedback opinions. The fine-grained aspects and opinions existing in reviews provide valuable information for educators to improve learning performance. Thus, it is necessary to make fine-grained aspect-based opinion mining on course reviews for feedback analysis. First, the latent Dirichlet allocation is applied to generate topics and the topic related words from course reviews. Each word belongs to a topic and these words are considered as the core aspects. Second, a series of rules and an algorithm are designed based on dependency syntax analysis to extract the fine-grained aspects and opinions. The aspect-based opinion candidate set is generated. Then the corresponding opinions of the core aspects are selected from the candidate set. Third, the sentiment score of each opinion is calculated combining the dictionary-based and pointwise mutual information method to identify the polarity of the opinion. The extracted aspects and opinions with sentiment polarity provide fine-grained feedback information from several topic perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to analyze the effectiveness of the formation of culture-general competencies of economics students in the context of the blended learning environment. The following results have been obtained. A blended learning system to teach Econometrics has been introduced at two Russian universities and one Kazakh university A questionnaire has been developed, and a sociological survey of economics students of the three universities has been conducted to assess the effectiveness of the formation of culture-general competencies in the context of blended learning of Econometrics. The analysis of the research results confirmed a number of hypotheses: H1 "Blended learning contributes to the formation of professional identity", H2 "Blended learning contributes to the formation of communication skills", H3 "Blended learning contributes to the formation of self-organization and self-education skills", H4 "Blended learning does not lead to a decrease in academic performance". The practical significance of the results obtained involves the fact that they make it possible to effectively implement blended learning technologies for the development of the competencies of economics students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe demand for online college courses has increased, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior research regarding methods of providing feedback to students in online courses has demonstrated that there may be many benefits to providing feedback to students in video rather than written format. Their research suggests that recorded video feedback provides a deeper bond between teachers and students. The main goal of this study was to add to the growing body of evidence around the use and impact of video feedback and to build upon these studies by using a larger sample size and assessing teacher/student bond with a reliable and valid measure (i.e., the Learning Alliance Inventory [LAI]) through a field experiment. A sample of 119 students enrolled in two psychology courses at a public southwestern university were randomly assigned to receive personalized written or video feedback on course written assignments. Results indicate that LAI scores and academic performance measures were not significantly different between students who received video or written feedback. Future research and educational implications are discussed in the context of the use, value, and implementation of video and written feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has caused major disruptions in the way engineering education is conducted all over the world. The impact has been greater in developing countries that still lack the necessary tools for pandemic-based training. In this work, we carry out a survey on three public universities based in Zambia. The survey investigates the impact of COVID-19 on engineering education in the study country. Visible in our findings are the challenges developing countries are experiencing towards effectively training engineers in these volatile times. Furthermore, we analyse the critical lessons learnt and provide useful insights for the engineering education stakeholders to consider. Information uncovered in this work puts us face to face with the stark reality that there is a need for adequate preparedness in times of global pandemics for engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of test anxiety in learning contexts. However, currently little is known about test anxiety experienced in online assessment and its role in online learning efforts and outcomes based on insights from Learning Management Systems (LMS) interaction data. This study investigated the mediating role of test anxiety in the relationship between behavioral engagement and academic achievement. To test the research model, the study data were analyzed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling approach. The analyses drew on data from 2994 online distance learners. Behavioral engagement of students was derived from learning analytics indicators based on LMS interaction data. Our results showed that test anxiety reduces the positive effect of online behavioral engagement on academic achievement. This study provides valuable insights for educators, students, and test designers in understanding the dynamics between online test anxiety, behavioral engagement and academic achievement and developing effective strategies for online learning. This analysis highlights the importance of understanding the interplay between these factors for educators, students, and test designers to develop effective online learning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter was based on a case study of a selected University in Zimbabwe. It was particularly concerned with modes of blended learning during the COVID-19 era and assessing if these modes were effective. The World health Organisation (WHO) declared a global health emergency based on the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a national lockdown which compelled universities to blend their teaching instruction. Universities were no longer able to congregate students all at once; hence learning had to be sustained through online means when students were not physically on campus. Although universities invested in ICTs, and insisted on blended learning to ensure that teaching and learning took place amidst COVID-19, they were beset with many challenges. This chapter covers the study period from March 2020 to April 2021. The study assumed a qualitative approach and case study design. Data was collected through interviews and questionnaires. The same was presented and analysed in a thematic approach. The findings of the study revealed that although learning did take place through blended learning, the effectiveness of learning through this mode was questionable as the quality of learning was compromised. The most widely used online learning modes which were blended with face- to-face interaction were Google Classroom, Zoom and WhatsApp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic posed great risks to some disabled students, not necessarily because of health-related conditions, but due to the pre-existing entrenched inequalities that might have led to widened disparities. Hence, our aim was to critically explore the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for disabled students, focusing on equal access to quality education. Data were gathered with semi-structured interviews with seven disabled students and eighteen parents of disabled students from Cyprus. Based on the participants' narratives, it was found that during the school closure non-disabled students who were considered as eligible to learn were usually kept close; in contrast, some disabled students, who were considered as not eligible for equal opportunities in quality education, were eventually kept afar. Thus, the induced fear of the pandemic facilitated the legitimisation of exclusion, by rationalising isolation, on the basis of the 'best interest' of the assumed as impotent and sick children. Hence, in some cases, obligatory distance resulted to the perpetuation of the dominant power relations and the prevailing social hierarchy, in which less qualified disabled people are usually placed at the lowest level, often with limited chance to climb up compared to their non-disabled peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign language learning is highly interactive and requires opportunities for academic speaking. The focus of this paper is how foreign language undergraduate students experienced this process in an online learning context. Through semi-structured interviews with seven undergraduate French, German and Spanish students, participants highlighted the challenges of speaking in a foreign language in an online environment and articulated the need for speaking skills which could compensate for the lack of visual clues. Drawing on the Oracy Skills Framework, this study suggests that certain skills were particularly pertinent and others could be added to fully reflect the reality of engaging in oral communication in an online environment. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we propose an adapted Oracy Skills Framework for a foreign language learning context which is timely and relevant for both online and face-to-face contexts. Second, we suggest ways in which teachers and students in higher education can support foreign language learners in speaking in online spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study determined the frequency, reasons for, and side effects of energy drinks (ED) consumption among online students. Participants: Students attending an online university. Methods: Participants were recruited by email and completed a 59-question survey about their prior months ED practices using a combination of validated surveys previously published examining similar constructs in on-campus students. Results: 307 students (age = 32.4 ± 6.5yrs) completed the survey, and 88% reported consuming EDs. Students' reasons for consuming ED included school (p <.001), work (p <.001), an event/competition (p <.001), pick me up (p <.001), lack of rest (p <.001), more energy (p <.001), and staying awake while driving (p <.001). Only individuals who consumed >10 ED/month reported side effects of headaches (p =.01) and speeding (p =.01). Conclusions: In our sample, a majority of the participants reported consuming ED for various daily activities. Only frequent consumers reported side effects suggesting they had become habituated to caffeine since they drank EDs despite experiencing side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis has necessitated the exploration of alternative learning methodologies to address the challenges of online education, especially in the context of teamwork. This case study examined the effectiveness of a small student team through a project focused on designing, fabricating, and testing a proof-of-concept prototype, specifically a Level 3 prototype according to the technology readiness level (TRL) scale. The project was predominantly carried out under the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The student team consisted of two undergraduate engineering students with prior experience in project-based learning (PBL) courses. The effectiveness of this teamwork in the current project was found to be strongly influenced by attributes such as shared goals and values, commitment to team success, constructive feedback, and accountability. However, the students' previous experiences in larger teams indicated that characteristics such as ideal team composition, leadership, and open communication were more prominent in those contexts. While team size may explain these differences, further research is necessary to establish definitive conclusions. The contributions of each student to the teamwork were characterized by independence and self-pacing, which played a crucial role in achieving the desired project outcomes. In conclusion, this case study emphasizes the importance of adapting to remote teamwork scenarios and provides strategies for effective project management. The findings highlight the significance of shared goals, commitment, feedback, and accountability in fostering effective teamwork. Moreover, the contributions of independence and self-pacing were instrumental in navigating the challenges posed by limited face-to-face interactions. Future research should investigate the impact of team size on team dynamics, the development of self-regulation skills in similar contexts, and the dynamics of teamwork when students lack experience in a PBL course. These investigations will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of effective teamwork strategies in diverse educational settings. The insights gained from this study contribute to the ongoing discussion on effective teamwork strategies in remote learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to validate a multidimensional instrument for assessing distance teaching-learning. It combined factors measuring motivation with instructional material and the teaching-learning experience with peers and teachers. The instrument was administered to 2,984 higher education students in Chile, demonstrating its statistical validity and adequate fit indicators. Consequently, this instrument can confidently evaluate online learning in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed at exploring how English as a foreign language (hereafter, EFL) preservice teacher (hereafter, PSTs) who had no teaching experience perceived Informal Digital Learning of English (hereafter, IDLE) and their IDLE implementation ideas for their future students' out-of-class activities to support formal classroom instruction. The researchers employed a basic qualitative design to understand the participants' perceptions and implementation ideas. The data were gathered through interviews and document analysis, and subsequently, 14 EFL PSTs with no prior teaching experience were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy. The data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. The findings give new insights that the participants had positive perceptions towards IDLE and had various implementation ideas of IDLE for their future students, mostly through disrupting Web 2.0 technology tools, even though they had no teaching experience using technology. Two implications for English educators and teacher education programs are highlighted in this article: changing teachers' mindsets towards EFL learning and the insertion of IDLE as a topic into pedagogy courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is both an institutional process and a set of conscious actions. Since its institutionalization, education has been viewed not only as an act of acquiring knowledge, but also as a socialization process. The traditional understanding of education, which views socialization as the its main purpose in addition to acquiring knowledge and shapes education policies accordingly, has emerged as a multi-dimensional sphere of discussion within "distance education", which has become almost mandatory today with Covid-19. This study aims to examine the problem areas of distance education experienced with Covid-19 by using an interdisciplinary approach in a psychological, sociological, and socio-psychological framework. To examine the subject in-depth and make analytical generalisations, the research reflects the opinions of the main actors, students, and faculty members, as well as the researchers' observations, in addition to the experts on the subject. The data analysis was conducted through the subjective evaluation of the researchers' own experiences and the content analysis of teacher and student opinions. The results reflect that education is not only an activity of acquiring knowledge but also a socialization process, the educational bureaucracy and environment make a significant contribution to the socialization of students, and that distance education can only be used as a supportive model. Education isolated from real life that does not contribute to the socialization processes of students may bring important psychological and social problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Engagement is essential in education, particularly in online learning. Many studies have been done to determine various antecedents of student engagement. However, more evidence-based experimental research is still needed to improve student engagement during online learning. This study aims to examine the effect of a gratitude intervention on student engagement in online learning. This study uses an experimental research design with a pre-and post-test control group design. Two online questionnaires were used in this study, a gratitude adjective checklist (GAC) and an online student engagement scale (OSES) which were administered to 47 undergraduate students. The participants were classified randomly into three conditions. In the first group, 20 students had a general gratitude exercise (experimental Group 1). In the second group, 15 students had an Islamic gratitude task (experimental Group 2). The last group consisted of 12 students without any gratitude tasks as a control group. The data were analyzed with Anova repeated measurements based on the pre- and post-test control group design. Results showed no interaction between different types of treatment and increased online engagement. However, it was found that the general gratitude treatment had the most significant effects compared to other treatments. This research proves that students can increase student engagement through the habit of being grateful daily including by writing down what things make them grateful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online and computer-assisted learning have become widespread in the rapidly evolving education landscape. However, these learning modalities uniquely challenge academic integrity, escalating the potential for academic cheating. This systematic review used thematic and narrative syntheses to examine the relationships and the effects of self-doubt and self-regulation on academic cheating in online and computer-assisted learning environments. It involved a sample of 93 peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 1998 and 2023 across five electronic databases adhering to the principles of the PRISMA framework. Findings reveal that different emotional, motivational, and cognitive factors act as primary mediators, while the individual, situational, and environmental factors were significant moderators. These findings underscore the context-dependent and inconsistent effects of self-doubt and self-regulation on academic cheating. Notably, while self-doubt and self-regulation exert opposing influences on academic cheating, other factors, such as gender, culture, performance, feedback, peer pressure, and proctoring, significantly modify these effects. Hence, the relationship between self-doubt, self-regulation, and academic cheating in online and computer-aided learning is thus intricate and dynamic, depending upon various individual, situational, and contextual elements that shape students' motivation, emotions, and cognition. Therefore, this study contributes to the broader discourse on online and computer-aided learning by offering strategies to prevent and reduce academic cheating. Recommendations include promoting self-regulation, reducing self-doubt, focusing on specific mediators and moderators, and utilizing different resources and techniques to measure and identify academic cheating. The results underline the importance of a concerted, multi-faceted approach to upholding academic integrity in the era of digital learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presently, numerous universities in Saudi Arabia have embraced online learning following the experience gained during the COVID-19 pandemic. While several studies have assessed the quality of online learning and student satisfaction during that period, limited research has explored students' satisfaction post-pandemic control despite several universities planning to offer some courses online. Investigating student satisfaction post-pandemic is crucial for predicting the quality of online learning and assisting universities in enhancing the outcomes of online learning. Consequently, this study aims to examine student satisfaction with online learning by proposing a model derived from the updated Information System Success Model. The updated model factors include system quality, service quality, and information quality, supplemented by student–student interaction quality and self-directed learning. Data were collected from a sample of 150 undergraduates at King Saud University in the second semester of the 2023–2024 academic year. The research model was validated using the PLS approach. The findings indicated that only self-directed learning significantly affects students' satisfaction with online learning. This study contributes theoretically by expanding the existing literature and enhancing the understanding of the factors that drive student satisfaction. Moreover, it provides practical contributions to decision-makers and educators developing online learning strategies focusing on enhancing self-directed learning abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the COVID‐19 epidemic had significantly influenced people's lives. In Vietnam, during the pandemic, we had implemented various safeguards to protect our lives. This article explores student's experiences in the COVID‐19 epidemic in Binh Duong, Vietnam. Eight students were recruited, and they enrolled in the same social work class. By using photovoice as a participatory method, 13 images were collected and illustrated their lives during COVID‐19. Research findings show that Vietnamese students faced many difficulties. These included Online learning experiences: Insufficient educational equipment; volunteer engagement for the community; memorable experiences when participants were in the "three on the spot"; increasing trauma in life; and returning to normal as a new life. This study sheds light on the multifaceted impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on student life, emphasizing the importance of adaptive learning strategies, support systems, and the value of resilience and community engagement in overcoming challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English has a significant role in the education and economic sectors. However, learning English has been challenging for students, especially when the implementation of online learning has significantly increased. This research aimed to reveal the reality of English online learning in an Indonesian university, focusing on synchronous and asynchronous technological applications used and challenges faced by students. By employing a qualitative approach, data were collected by observing five English language skills subjects as well as interviewing 13 volunteered students. The findings revealed that Zoom and Google Meet were used in synchronous online English language classrooms mainly for lectures, discussions, and presentations. Meanwhile, Spada, the university YouTube channel, and the university online portal were used asynchronously for assignments, projects, information updates, peer corrections, forums, and learning materials. Some challenges in synchronous online learning included unstable internet connection, expensive internet data, incompatible gadgets, and low self-confidence. Meanwhile, in asynchronous online learning, some challenges included difficulties in comprehending learning materials, overloaded assignments, and lack of personal time commitment. This research suggested teachers and relevant stakeholders incorporate balanced synchronous and asynchronous online learning in their English language classrooms, improve infrastructure and technology for online learning, and prepare students for the challenges of tomorrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education has undergone a profound transformation, transitioning significantly from traditional face-to-face instructional approaches to a predominant reliance on online learning methodologies. This sudden change leaves questions on how to provide an affective and satisfying online leaning for students. As prior studies revealed, many factors affect the success of implementing online learning, specifically for higher education students. As a response, this quantitative study was intended to investigate the interplay of factors affecting online learning experience in higher education namely anxiety, motivation for learning, self-directed learning, online learning attitude, and computer-internet self-efficacy. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) included 20 items of online survey distributed to undergraduate students (n=329) from several faculties at one Indonesian university to explore this issue. This study used the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) application to explore the interplay among six constructs. The results showed that all six constructs namely anxiety, motivation for learning, self-directed learning, online learning attitude, computer-internet self-efficacy, and online learning experience were positively associated. It meant that those factors were statistically proven to affect students' online learning experiences. Educators could use these results as a consideration in implementing online learning more effectively. Further implications of pedagogical practice and further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, researchers analyzed the current distance learning situation in the Philippines as part of a four-phase project to create a Filipinized learning management system (LMS) for nursing students and educators. A mixed-methods approach was utilized by conducting 17 online focus group discussions (FGDs) in selected nursing universities from the Philippines and disseminating an online survey with a sample size of 80 nursing educators and student participants. Results revealed that both nursing students and educators faced barriers in their online learning and teaching experiences and in using LMS. Educators showed how slow internet connections and power outages, lack of training with the use of technology and LMS, lack of technology resources, and lower student engagement hampered the delivery of learning. Students also shared problems with instability of internet connection, teacher-student and student-student communication, and learning environment. Both teachers and students also recognized time efficiency, cost-effectiveness, the accessibility of learning materials, and flexibility in learning as benefits of online learning. The study provided an in-depth understanding of the situation of Filipino online nursing students and educators that may be used in developing the Filipinized LMS and in building educational policies and programs for online learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To give e-learners enough freedom during their learning experiences, interactive learning, or "e-learning" as it is more commonly known, uses information and communication technologies. Because it provides e-learners with several benefits, e-learning has garnered a lot of attention in the education sector during the COVID-19 epidemic. This study's primary goal is to assess how internet connection (ICS) and service quality (SVQ) affect e-learner satisfaction (ELS). This study assessed the effects of factors (service quality and internet connection) on e-learner satisfaction in Saudi Arabian higher education institutions. The investigation was carried out using a quantitative technique. Information was acquired from Saudi Arabian universities. A total of 350 questionnaires were reviewed. The relationship between factors (service quality and internet connection) and their effect on the satisfaction of e-learners was examined using structural equation modeling (AMOS SEM). The study's results demonstrated that factors including SVQ and ICS have a positive effect on how satisfied e-learners are. This article recommends that responsible authorities pay special attention to ensuring quality and existing regulations and standards to address the issues that could affect ELS with e-learning in Saudi Arabian higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the current study is to prove the effectiveness of using interactive elements in problem-based learning (PBL) for medical students. The simultaneous use of interactivity and a problem-solving approach makes it possible to improve the pedagogy of distance learning and improve the training of medical specialties. In the study, 120 medical students of 4-5 university courses were enrolled and were divided into 3 groups, a control group and two experimental ones, who received intervention one in the form of PBL, the second, PBL, and also interactive elements in blended learning. Participants in the groups were randomly selected but with an equal representation of men and women aged 21 to 23 years. The results were measured using the university 12-point system and the presence of statistically significant differences was established using the student's t-test. It was found that in experimental groups, the results of the post-test of academic achievement were statistically significantly higher than the pre-test. At the same time, the best changes were recorded in the group with PLB and interactive training. There were no statistically significant differences between genders within each group or between groups; however, females performed slightly better on average than males. Practically, the results of the study can be used to improve the academic training of physicians during distance learning and to improve practical problem-solving skills. The current study can be used in further analysis of the PBL of medical students subject to the global integration of digital technologies in educational systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by our collaboration with Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), a consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, we consider the problem of forecasting sales under the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Our approach combines nonparametric regression, game theory, and pandemic modeling to develop a data-driven competitive online nonparametric regression method. Specifically, the method takes the future COVID-19 case estimates, which can be simulated via the susceptible-infectious-removed (SIR) epidemic model as an input, and outputs the level of calibration for the baseline sales forecast generated by AB InBev. In generating the calibration level, we focus on an online learning setting where our algorithm sequentially predicts the label (i.e., the level of calibration) of a random covariate (i.e., the current number of active cases) given past observations and the generative process (i.e., the SIR epidemic model) of future covariates. To provide robust performance guarantee, we derive our algorithm by minimizing regret, which is the difference between the squared ℓ2 -norm associated with labels generated by the algorithm and labels generated by an adversary and the squared ℓ2 -norm associated with labels generated by the best isotonic (nondecreasing) function in hindsight and the adversarial labels. We develop a computationally efficient algorithm that attains the minimax-optimal regret over all possible choices of the labels (possibly non-i.i.d. and even adversarial). We demonstrate the performances of our algorithm on both synthetic and AB InBev's data sets of three different markets (each corresponds to a country) from March 2020 to March 2021. The AB InBev's numerical experiments show that our method is capable of reducing the forecast error in terms of weighted mean absolute percentage error (WMAPE) and mean squared error (MSE) by more than 37% for the company. This paper was accepted by J. George Shanthikumar, data science. Funding: This work was partially supported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Data Science Lab and AB-InBev Corporation. Supplemental Material: The e-companion and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4969. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the integration of online learning into complete denture rehabilitation (CDR) training for dental interns, highlighting its impact on their education and readiness for clinical practice. Given that CDR poses significant challenges due to its technical complexity and profound influence on patient well-being, online learning has emerged as a strategic educational tool to enhance interns' knowledge and skills. This research included the administration of a comprehensive questionnaire to 63 dental interns to assess their backgrounds, experiences with online learning, and attitudes toward its application in CDR education. The results revealed strong engagement with online learning, with a majority valuing its flexibility, accessibility, and capacity to facilitate self-paced, individualized learning. Despite the enthusiasm for online modalities, the results identified notable gaps in interns' confidence in and preparedness for performing CDR, highlighting the need for targeted improvements in online curriculum development. By emphasizing the essential role of innovative teaching methods, including virtual reality (VR), this study underscores the need for a balanced educational approach that combines traditional and digital platforms. This strategy aims to prepare future dental professionals for the complexities of modern clinical environments, ensuring that they are well equipped to meet the diverse needs of the edentulous population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data streams refer to data sequences generated at a high rate over a continuous period, such as social media analysis, financial transaction monitoring, and sensor data processing. Most existing data stream mining methods make assumptions about the feature space, assuming it is either fixed or undergoes regular changes, such as trapezoidal or evolving data streams. However, these restrictions do not hold for real-world applications where data streams may exhibit arbitrary missing features. To address the issue of arbitrary missing features in the feature space, we propose the Online Learning from Capricious Data Streams (OLCDS) algorithm and its variant, OLCDS-I. Specifically, OLCDS first identifies the higher uncertainty features that can provide more information for the optimization model. Then, based on the shared and new feature space, we formulate the constrained optimization problem using the soft margin technique. We deduce the update rules and use model sparsity to retain the essential features for classifier learning. Compared to existing online learning approaches, our new method eliminates the need for feature space assumptions and avoids generating missing features. Extensive experiments compared with five state-of-the-art methods on ten real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our new algorithms [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stream data mining aims to handle the continuous and ongoing generation of data flows (e.g. weather, stock and traffic data), which often encounters concept drift as time progresses. Traditional offline algorithms struggle with learning from real-time data, making online algorithms more fitting for mining the stream data with dynamic concepts. Among families of the online learning algorithms, single pass stands out for its efficiency in processing one sample point at a time, and inspecting it only once at most. Currently, there exist online algorithms tailored for single pass over the stream data by converting the problems of classification into minimum enclosing ball. However, these methods mainly focus on expanding the ball to enclose the new data. An excessively large ball might overwrite data of the new concept, creating difficulty in triggering the model updating process. This paper proposes a new online single pass framework for stream data mining, namely Scalable Concept Drift Adaptation (SCDA), and presents three distinct online methods (SCDA-I, SCDA-II and SCDA-III) based on that framework. These methods dynamically adjust the ball by expanding or contracting when new sample points arrive, thereby effectively avoiding the issue of excessively large balls. To evaluate their performance, we conduct the experiments on 7 synthetic and 5 real-world benchmark datasets and compete with the state-of-the-arts. The experiments demonstrate the applicability and flexibility of the SCDA methods in stream data mining by comparing three aspects: predictive performance, memory usage and scalability of the ball. Among them, the SCDA-III method performs best in all these aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]