Journal of Computing in Higher Education最新文献

Research in computer-supported collaborative learning has explored various ways to support learner-learner interaction as healthcare professionals engage in online formats. While studies have explored various socio-emotional learning outcomes, learners’ psychological safety has yet to be explored as healthcare professionals engage in collaborative problem-solving. To address this gap, the qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews to understand occupational therapy students’ (N = 10) perceptions of psychological safety as they engaged in an online learning class. The resulting themes of this study described the feelings associated with different forms of interactions requiring psychological safety: (a) being vulnerable, (b) fear of being misunderstood, (c) need to protect/protection, and (d) group cohesion. The findings have implications for online learner-learner interactions and computer-supported collaborative learning. For example, learners discussed how the perceived permanence of online learning lead to a sense of self-preservation and reticence to discuss the ill-structured and potentially controversial nature of complex problems. Additional aspects of psychological safety in online learning highlighted the importance of shared experiences, learning from failure, and community building.

Learning management systems (LMS) have emerged as a standard component of higher education institutions for the web-based delivery and management of courses. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the value of LMS in facilitating online teaching and learning. However, the significance of examining the factors that impact LMS use success during the pandemic has been underestimated. Moreover, despite previous attempts to evaluate students’ LMS experience, most research failed to connect the actual use of LMS to students’ learning success. To address these gaps, we developed and validated an empirical and theory-based instrument measuring students’ LMS experience. The choice of constructs was informed by a scoping review of LMS measures and interviews with a representative sample of students and teachers about their LMS use. By adding constructs that are relevant to learning in the LMS, the current study provided a more comprehensive measurement that captures students’ learning experience in the platform. We provided evidence for the measurement invariance of the scales with their Chinese translation as well. By addressing the limitations and building on this study’s findings, researchers can further advance our understanding of LMS experiences and contribute to developing more effective e-learning systems to support teaching and learning in higher education.

Information problem solving (IPS) is an important twenty-first century skill, but it is lacking at all age levels. One type of information problem, those of an ill-structured nature that require multiple iterations of (re)defining problems and formulating emerging solutions, can be particularly challenging but have received less attention in the IPS literature. Further, the process of solving such problems often reveals, while simultaneously being impacted by, problem solvers’ epistemic beliefs. Using a self-regulated problem-solving model as an analytic framework and taking advantage of multiple data sources, this study examined college students’ self-regulatory patterns in performing an ill-structured IPS task, and compared the patterns displayed by two groups of students with more and less adaptive epistemic beliefs. Sequential analysis of behavioral data revealed different patterns between the two groups. Think-aloud data, interviews, and students’ IPS products showed three key differences between the two groups: difference in the roles of IPS task instructions, difference in the numbers and triggers of queries, and qualitative difference in iterations between page viewing and writing. The findings yielded important insights into the self-regulatory processes of IPS and the role of epistemic beliefs at different problem-solving stages. Implications are drawn for educators and learning designers for developing IPS in higher education.

In the flipped classroom, students engage in preparatory activities to study the course materials prior to attending teacher-guided sessions. Students’ success in the flipped classroom is directly related to their preparation and students tend to change their preparation activity over time. Few studies have investigated why students change their preparation activity. Therefore, we address this gap by first clustering university students (N = 174) enrolled in a flipped course for the first time based on their preparatory activities at three time points. We identified distinct preparatory activity patterns by computing changes in cluster membership. Next, we compared students’ preparatory activity patterns in course performance, motivation, and self-regulation. The temporal investigation of activity patterns provided important insights into how preparation (or lack thereof) at different phases relates to course performance. Intensive preparation only at the beginning of the course was related to significantly worse course performance whereas preparation only in the middle of the course was related to higher course performance. Students who performed intensively during the course had significantly higher course performance, higher intrinsic motivation at the beginning, and higher self-regulation (in particular, time management) in the middle of the course than students showing lower activity during preparation. Our findings provide important implications for future research and educational practice, particularly for students transitioning to flipped classroom learning for the first time.

Abstract

Helping students gradually develop collective knowledge is critical but generally faces great challenges. Employing a quasi-experimental design, this study investigated the impacts and mechanisms of analytics-supported reflective assessment on the collective knowledge advancement of undergraduates. The experimental group (n = 55) engaged in Knowledge Building inquiries with facilitation through analytics-supported reflective assessment, while the comparison class (n = 38) pursued Knowledge Building inquiries facilitated by portfolio-supported reflective assessment. This study found that analytics-supported reflective assessment positively and significantly influenced undergraduates’ collective knowledge advancement. Path analysis revealed the mechanisms of analytics-supported reflective assessment for supporting undergraduates’ collective knowledge advancement—the undergraduates’ metacognitive engagement and cognitive engagement influenced each other, further influencing their contribution to collective knowledge advancement and domain understanding. This study holds significant practical implications for fostering students’ knowledge building, inquiry, and metacognition by designing technology-enhanced learning environments as collaborative and metacognitive tools. Additionally, the study offers insights into the processes and mechanisms of reflective assessment, contributing to an understanding of how it enhances students’ development of higher-order skills.

Abstract

This profiling study deals with the self-regulated learning skills of online learners based on their interaction behaviors on the learning management system. The learners were profiled through their interaction behaviors via cluster analysis. Following a correlational model with the interaction data of learners, the post-test questionnaire data were used to determine self-regulated learning skills scores during the learning process. Regarding the scores, the clusters were named through the prominent interactions of the learners yielding three clusters; actively engaged (Cluster1), assessment-oriented (Cluster2), and passively-oriented (Cluster3), respectively. The profiles in the clusters indicate that assessments were mostly used by the learners in Cluster2, while the frequency of the content tools was high in Cluster1. Surprisingly, some tools such as glossary, survey, and chat did not play a prominent role in discriminating the clusters. Suggestions for future implementations of self-regulated learning and effective online learning in learning management systems are also included.

Online collaborative discussion (OCD) focuses on promoting individual knowledge inquiry and group knowledge construction through active peer interactions and communications. In practice, it is necessary to explore how different modes of OCD come into play, in which student engagement can function as an evaluating indicator. To identify student engagement in OCD, prior research has identified and categorized various types of student roles. However, although students usually change their engagement during the learning process and across learning occasions, most existing research focuses on examining unchanging student roles or developing roles in similar collaborative activities, which might overlook the probable role transitions brought by engagement changes. To fill this gap, this research proposes an integrated probabilistic clustering approach to detect student roles, role transitions, and fine-grained attributes of transitions across the asynchronous and synchronous OCD modes. The results demonstrate four roles (Knowledge Constructor, Task Follower, Isolated Explorer, and Lurker), four transition categories (Maintenance of inactive participant, Transferring to inactive participant, Maintenance of active participant, and Transferring to active participant), and the code co-occurrence structures of four transition categories. This research deepens the understanding of the complexity of student engagement in online collaborative discussions and offers both analytical and practical implications for improving student engagement.

Abstract

Mindfulness practices have proven to be effective for improving the mental health of many populations, including university students. However, these practices can be challenging for naive meditators. Virtual reality (VR) can create virtual scenarios that facilitate the practice of mindfulness. This study presents secondary data from a randomized controlled trial on the effects and acceptability of mindfulness-based VR environments conducted with a sample of university students. Specifically, it involved a single condition (n = 93) receiving an intervention that comprised six short mindfulness sessions in VR. Measurements were taken of participants’ state mindfulness and emotional state immediately before and after the implementation of each VR environment. Sense of presence was measured subsequent to each VR environment. Furthermore, participants were asked to rate their expectations for at baseline and satisfaction with the experience after the intervention. Participants significantly improved both state mindfulness and emotional states, and they reported a moderate-to-strong sense of presence in each of the VR environments. Moreover, participants reported high expectation and satisfaction scores for the intervention. This study shows the potential of VR in mindfulness, although there is a need for more research in this area and, in particular, more sophisticated trial designs.