Search

This study aimed to develop and validate a scale of agentic engagement in massive open online courses (MOOCs). Initially, 14 items were derived through a literature review, from which 7 items were drawn through a Delphi survey. Sample sets were used to develop and confirm the constructs of the new scale proposed in this study. To examine exploratory factor analysis, a survey of 163 learners using the K-MOOC system was conducted. The items were clustered into three factors: agentic support requests, agentic learning strategies, and agentic learning construction. A survey was administered to 243 respondents to validate the scale. The data gathered were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and a reliability test. The results showed that the agentic engagement scale, with 7 items and 3 factors, was reliable and valid. Based on the findings, instructional strategies were identified to enhance agentic engagement in self-paced MOOCs.

Background: This study aims to establish the mechanism by which virtual reality (VR) media characteristics affect learning transfer in a VR-based job-training environment. The two main determinants of learning transfer are the technology and the learner, but not many studies have considered both factors simultaneously. Objectives: This study aims to ascertain the mechanism by which VR media characteristics affect learning transfer with flow as a mediator, and to explore whether presence moderates the effect of VR media characteristics on flow. Methods: A survey of semiconductor facilities engineers who received VR-based job training was conducted. A total of 106 responses were used in the statistical analysis. A path analysis was conducted to determine the promotional mechanism that connects VR media characteristics, flow, and learning transfer. Results and Conclusions: The results were as follows. First, VR media characteristics had a positive impact on learning transfer. Second, flow acted as a mediator in the relationship between VR media characteristics and learning transfer. Third, presence played a moderating role in the relationship between VR media characteristics and flow. Key takeaways: This study is significant as it identifies elements to consider in relation to both the technological and learner aspects of VR while designing a VR-based job-training programme. A corporation should consider VR media characteristics from a technological perspective, and flow and presence from a learner's perspective.

Studies have examined the relationship between Facebook use and student engagement. With the growing use of social networking services in everyday life, there is an ongoing debate on the effect of Facebook usage outside the classroom on classroom learning. However, studies have been so far failed to examine how Facebook activities in everyday life differ according to individual characteristics. In order to answer that question, this study investigated how Facebook use affects student engagement in the classroom. The moderating role of user motivation was also examined, since students use Facebook for different purposes, which eventually determine whether they become engaged in their learning. The results revealed that students with more active Facebook use achieved significantly higher scores on student engagement than those with less active Facebook use. Image-management and social-pressure motivations have moderating effects on the relationship between the differing ways of using Facebook and student engagement. Students with high levels of image-management motivation who spent more time on Facebook gave learning with peers the lowest ratings of all the students surveyed. Those with high levels of social-pressure motivation who spent more time on Facebook also gave learning with peers lower ratings than all other students surveyed. Implications for future studies on instructional uses of social networking services are suggested.

This study aimed to examine the structural relationships among factors that affect learners' continuance intention to use Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Drawing upon the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), it posited teaching presence and task-technology fit as exogenous variables, examining how they affect continuance intention to use MOOCs, mediated by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Based on survey data from 252 Korean MOOC learners, structural equation modeling was employed to assess the model. The results indicated that perceived usefulness affected continuance intention to use, while perceived ease of use did not; however, perceived ease of use did affect perceived usefulness. Further, teaching presence was not significantly related to continuance intention to use or perceived usefulness, but did affect perceived ease of use. However, task-technology fit affected perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and continuance intention to use. Finally, the mediating role of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on the relationships between teaching presence as well as task-technology fit and continuance intention were confirmed. Implications were suggested for designing courses in MOOCs to increase continuance intention to use.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impacts of ICT use on achievements by considering not only ICT use, but also the process and background variables that influence ICT use at both the student- and school-level. This study was conducted using data from the 2010 Survey of Seoul Education Longitudinal Research. A Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analysis was employed to control the student and school characteristics. The study results show that the use of ICT explained a significant portion in the overall variance in mathematic achievement at the elementary school level, at the middle school level, and at the high school level, respectively. Information communication and transactions, a component of ICT literacy, has negative impacts on mathematic achievement, and ICT self-efficacy is more likely to result in academic achievement than other background and processing variables. (Contains 4 tables.)

Reflective thinking is important to young adolescents as they develop their thinking skills. Various instructional methods have been recommended to support reflective thinking, yet the nature of the underlying factors in these methods is unclear. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the factors prompting reflective thinking. Results of this study suggest that young students perceived three clusters of methods as supporting their reflection: reflective learning environments, reflective teaching methods, and reflective scaffolding tools. A one-way within subjects ANOVA showed that the most helpful factor was the reflective learning environment, with the most helpful elements being freedom and collaboration. Students' perceptions of concept mapping and reflective question prompts were found to differ significantly across gender. Recommendations are provided for designing learning environments that prompt reflective thinking.

Abstract:Introduction: This study explored the relationship among various variables from an expectation-confirmation perspective to identify ways to increase learners' continuance intention to use MOOCs. Using the expectation-confirmation model (ECM), we established the structural relationship among MOOC quality factors (system quality, service quality, information quality), perceived usefulness, expectation-confirmation, satisfaction, and continuance intention to use in the context of MOOCs. Methods: We surveyed learners who took the K-MOOC (Korean MOOC), an open online service that provides free courses to anyone. We collected a total of 352 datasets from K-MOOC courses opened at a 4-year university in Seoul and analyzed 349 surveys after preprocessing the data. We then employed structural equation modeling to analyze the data. Results: The quality of service and information positively affected expectation confirmation. Expectation confirmation significantly affected perceived usefulness and satisfaction, and perceived usefulness significantly affected satisfaction and continued intention to use MOOCs. Expectation confirmation had a mediating effect between information quality and continuance intention to use as well as between service quality and continuance intention to use. Conclusion: This study is a meaningful contribution that proposes a practical suggestion to ultimately increase the intention to continue using MOOCs by meeting users' expectations regarding quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how scaffolding type and learners' epistemological beliefs influence ill-structured problem solving. The independent variables in this study include the type of scaffolding (task-supported, self-monitoring) and the student's epistemological belief level (more advanced, less advanced). The dependent variables include three components of problem-solving skill (problem representation, solution development, monitoring and evaluation). The two-way multivariate analysis of variance results reveal that students in the self-monitoring scaffolding group earned higher scores on problem representation and solution development than those in the task-supported scaffolding group. Students with more advanced epistemological beliefs also earned higher scores on solution development and monitoring and evaluation than did those with less advanced epistemological beliefs. In addition, a significant interaction was found between scaffolding type and epistemological belief level. These findings suggest that students can benefit from self-monitoring scaffolding in web-based problem solving and that different types of scaffolding should be provided according to the student's epistemological belief level.

Given that a user interface interacts with users, a critical factor to be considered in improving the usability of an e-learning user interface is user-friendliness. Affordances enable users to more easily approach and engage in learning tasks because they strengthen positive, activating emotions. However, most studies on affordances limit themselves to an examination of the affordance attributes of e-learning tools rather than determining how to increase such attributes. A design approach is needed to improve affordances for e-learning user interfaces. Using Maier and Fadel's Affordance-Based Design methodology as a framework, the researchers in this study identified affordance factors, suggested affordance design strategies for the user interface, and redesigned an affordable user interface prototype. The identified affordance factors and strategies were reviewed and validated in Delphi meetings whose members were teachers, e-learning specialists, and educational researchers. The effects of the redesigned user interface on usability were evaluated by fifth-grade participating in the experimental study. The results show that affordances led users to experience positive emotions, and as a result, use the interface effectively, efficiently, and satisfactorily. Implications were discussed for designing strategies to enhance the affordances of the user interfaces of e-learning and other learning technology tools.

Usability is critical to the development of a user-friendly digital textbook platform interface, yet thorough research on interface development based on usability principles is in short supply. This study addresses that need by looking at usability attributes and corresponding design elements from a learning perspective. The researchers used a student survey, log files, and an expert heuristic evaluation to analyze needs for revision in the user interface of the existing Korea Education Research Information Service digital textbook platform. After using suggestions derived from this analysis to develop a new platform prototype, they tested its user interface for usability through a cognitive walkthrough and a formative evaluation. The results show that the usability design elements identified through the use of this iterative design and evaluation model were essential to improving the usability of the user interface and thus facilitating users' actions and learning processes.

Faculty members have different concerns as they integrate new technology into their teaching practices. The integration of Web-Based Instruction in higher-education settings will not be successful if these faculty concerns are not addressed. Four main stages of faculty concern (information, personal, management, and impact) were identified based on Hall's concern-based adoption model. By reviewing the literature on the diffusion of on-line education, the author identified support factors that may decrease faculty concerns about adopting WBI. System dynamics was used to examine associations between faculty concerns and these support factors. Based on these associations, a simulation model was built using STELLA to test the potential impact of support factors on the adoption of WBI by faculty members. The simulation model will aid educators and administrators in evaluating the impacts of support factors on the adoption of WBI. (Contains 2 tables and 6 figures.)

One important factor related to ill-structured problem-solving success is intrinsic motivation, that is, students' willingness to persist in solving the problem. Goal orientation, a motivational variable, explains reasons why students engage in the activity because they want to either learn or perform. This study investigated the relationship between these two types of goal orientations and their effects on motivation and problem solving by varying three instructional contexts designed to promote one of the two orientations. Heterogeneous and homogeneous peer grouping based on self-efficacy was also predicted to affect intrinsic motivation and problem solving. The results indicated that students in the learning-oriented context had significantly higher intrinsic motivation than those in the performance-oriented context. Students in the heterogeneous peer group had higher scores on monitoring and evaluating problem-solving subskills than those in the homogeneous peer groups. Learning-goal orientation and solution development were significantly related when students participated in the learning-oriented, heterogeneous peer grouping treatment group.

Reflective-thinking skills are important in problem-based learning environments as they help learners become deeply engaged in learning. The literature suggests several instructional-design factors (e.g., environment, teaching methods, scaffolding tools) that may prompt reflection in learners. However, it is unclear whether these factors differ based on age or developmental stage. The results of this study indicate that middle-school students perceive the "learning environment" factor as more important to prompting their thinking, while college students perceive the "scaffolding methods" factor as more important. While the elements clustered into two factors, most college students disagreed with their helpfulness in prompting reflective thinking, a finding opposite to that obtained for middle-school students. Different patterns were also found between learners' perceptions of the most helpful elements within each factor. Based on these results, suggestions are given for designing developmentally and age-appropriate PBL learning environments that support reflective thinking.

Motivation effort is one of the critical components that enable students to engage in the process of ill-structured problem solving. This article chronicles the development and evaluation of a motivation-supported problem-solving environment promoting learning goals. The environment was created by developing learning-goal oriented contexts that included (1) presenting task messages that stressed the intrinsic value of learning, (2) allowing learners to control their own learning activities, and (3) providing self-referenced evaluations. Forty-six middle-school students participated. One major finding was that a learning-goal oriented context was a powerful motivational strategy that boosted students' intrinsic motivation for ill-structured problem solving. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Studies have examined the relationship between Facebook use and student engagement. With the growing use of social networking services in everyday life, there is an ongoing debate on the effect of Facebook usage outside the classroom on classroom learning. However, studies have been so far failed to examine how Facebook activities in everyday life differ according to individual characteristics. In order to answer that question, this study investigated how Facebook use affects student engagement in the classroom. The moderating role of user motivation was also examined, since students use Facebook for different purposes, which eventually determine whether they become engaged in their learning. The results revealed that students with more active Facebook use achieved significantly higher scores on student engagement than those with less active Facebook use. Image-management and social-pressure motivations have moderating effects on the relationship between the differing ways of using Facebook and student engagement. Students with high levels of image-management motivation who spent more time on Facebook gave learning with peers the lowest ratings of all the students surveyed. Those with high levels of social-pressure motivation who spent more time on Facebook also gave learning with peers lower ratings than all other students surveyed. Implications for future studies on instructional uses of social networking services are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]