Internet and Higher Education最新文献

This study examines the effects that online collaborative note-taking has on student performance. The study draws on 10 weeks of data from 273 STEM university students who were collaborating in 61 groups. Group and individual learning were assessed weekly by evaluating the completeness of collaborative note-taking documents and subsequent individual assessments. Analysis suggested up to 23% of the variation in course performance could be attributed to between-group effects. Further, a series of 10 multilevel temporal models suggested no substantive effects in the first half of the course, though in the second half of the course, groups that co-created more complete course notes tended to exhibit improved average student performance. We speculate that the learning advantages afforded to student groups that produce more complete course notes may be delayed. This study adds to the growing body of research into the effects that collaboration has on student learning.

Within the distance education community, the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework is widely accepted as a framework to understand and design text-based learning environments. The framework includes three components: Cognitive Presence, Teaching Presence, and Social Presence. Recent work has proposed the addition of a fourth component, Learning Presence, which reflects students' self-regulation, and its role within the original framework. This study evaluated alternative structures of the COI framework to explain student perceptions of learning online. The study participants (n = 256) were graduate students from multiple institutions who had taken at least one fully online course as part of their degree requirements. Survey data were collected using a single Likert-scaled survey instrument. Presented herein are the results of the first phase of a two-part study, which included a series of confirmatory factor analyses to evaluate the measurement models of the four COI constructs individually, followed by a model including all four constructs simultaneously. Future work on the second phase of the this two-part study evaluated a series of structural models using path analyses and hierarchical linear regression analyses. Findings indicated that teaching presence reached a more parimonious model with two subscales as opposed to the three subscales of the COI survey. A new subscale "peer faciliation" was proposed for teaching presence, but had better model fit as a subscale of social presence. The three existing subscales of social presence could also more parsimoniously represented with two subscales, with the new "peer faciliation" subscale acting as the third. Finally, learning presence was modeled with three subscales, and was the strongest overall predictor of cognitive presence, compared to teaching and social presence. This work makes unique contributions to the study of online learning environments through the COI framework by introducing a comprehensive survey that includes Learning Presence indicators, producing evidence on the multi-dimensionality of the COI constructs, and the strong relationship between Learning Presence and Cognitive Presence.

For service implementations to be widely adopted, it is necessary for the expectations of the key stakeholders to be considered. Failure to do so may lead to services reflecting ideological gaps, which will inadvertently create dissatisfaction among its users. Learning analytics research has begun to recognise the importance of understanding the student perspective towards the services that could be potentially offered; however, student engagement remains low. Furthermore, there has been no attempt to explore whether students can be segmented into different groups based on their expectations towards learning analytics services. In doing so, it allows for a greater understanding of what is and is not expected from learning analytics services within a sample of students. The current exploratory work addresses this limitation by using the three-step approach to latent class analysis to understand whether student expectations of learning analytics services can clearly be segmented, using self-report data obtained from a sample of students at an Open University in the Netherlands. The findings show that student expectations regarding ethical and privacy elements of a learning analytics service are consistent across all groups; however, those expectations of service features are quite variable. These results are discussed in relation to previous work on student stakeholder perspectives, policy development, and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Online tutoring has been found to have a positive impact on student learning in STEM education. The aim of this study was to explore how and to what extent students supported their own and other students' processes of inquiry during online tutoring. More specifically, question and answer sessions (Q&As) were studied, and online tutoring transcripts were analyzed using the Relationship of Inquiry coding scheme adapted from the Community of Inquiry framework. The students interacted voluntarily with each other and with the teachers. The results show that the students supported both their own process of inquiry as well as other students' process of inquiry. Furthermore, the results indicate that students acquired metacognitive development through self- and co-regulation when they expressed teaching presence. Overall, we conclude that Q&As have the potential to support student learning when working on assignments in STEM education.

Online graduate degree programs, particularly in technical disciplines, represent a fast-growing market for higher education institutions. Yet, it is unclear how online degree programs fit within students' educational investment decisions and career goals. Based on a foundation of human capital theory, and using data from a 2017 survey of students enrolled in an online master's degree program in computer science at a highly ranked US university, this study explores how motivation for seeking an online graduate degree in computer science varies by student demographics and professional background/preparation. Results show two student markets: one for career mobility, including job advancement and/or career change, and another for skill building without consideration of mobility. Our results also show that while students come from diverse backgrounds, the primary driving factor for seeking the degree is determined by relevant professional experience. Implications for future study and online instructional design are discussed.

Even though Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have created highly personalized and dynamic learning environments for higher education, the low completion rate has hampered their development. Nevertheless, how to engage MOOC learners in continuing to learn online remains unclear in terms of psychological mechanisms. Enlightened by the social cognitive view of learning and hardiness theory, this study investigates the mediating role of online academic hardiness (the courage that is needed to turn stressful changes from burdens into advantageous growth in online environments) between web-based learning self-efficacy (the specific beliefs that people have in their capability to complete tasks when learning online) and online learning engagement. Using validated self-reported scales, a total of 608 participants of six MOOCs courses from Taiwan were included in this study. The results of structural equation modeling indicated the significant mediating effect of commitment on behavioral, emotional and cognitive engagement in learning MOOCs. Additionally, we found that the components of web-based learning self-efficacy led to different types of engagement: general Internet-based learning self-efficacy contributes to behavioral and emotional engagement, whereas functional Internet-based learning self-efficacy contributes to emotional and cognitive engagement. The direct and indirect effects of web-based learning self-efficacy highlight its critical role in online learning engagement. Overall, our conceptual model based on the agentic view of social cognitive theory provides researchers and practitioners with a holistic picture to understand the MOOC engagement phenomenon by revealing mixed results compared to traditional distance education.

Background

Online distance learning at university level is growing in popularity. Learners are often faced with the dual demands of full-time work and part-time studying. The present study examines whether psychological capital predicts learner engagement and burnout and whether social support moderates these relationships. Method: Postgraduate distance learning students who work alongside their studies (n=465) completed measures of psychological capital, burnout, engagement, and social support. Results: Analysis showed psychological capital to significantly predict both burnout and engagement. Furthermore, social support was found to be influential. Conclusion: The findings indicate the benefit of psychological capital in an academic context. Implications of these findings and potential interventions are discussed.

The goal of this work is to evaluate the worth of learning, that resulted from student participation in a cross-organizational (industry-academia) Community of Practice (CoP). CoPs are groups of people who share common interest in a field and connect to co-create knowledge and competence within that. In this study, the CoP was integrated in a Higher Education Design course that was following a blended-learning approach. Internal and external collaboration was primarily facilitated through online technologies.

The study employs the Value Creation framework to analyze the types and value of co-created learning and explores these results to draw inferences as to the effects of CoP participation on the learners' identities, which were continuously being reformulated.

The resulting CoP interactions indicated a strong immediate learning value. These also generated new insights (potential value) and familiarized learners with the characteristics of the real-world practice. The effective transfer of knowledge into the academic practice was confirmed by the significant improvements in student performances (applied & realized value). Finally, CoP participation steered a shift in learner perspectives, by pragmatically transforming their perception of achievement and orientating them towards transitioning and evolving in the professional sphere (reframed value).

The literature regarding formative assessment and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) has focused on the ways in which formative assessment improves SRL. This study, on the other hand, evaluated whether SRL characteristics impact successful engagement with formative assessment, and subsequent summative performance in both online and blended learning contexts. Ninety-six blended and 85 online learners completed a formative assessment task, received feedback, and then resubmit the assessment for a summative grade. Overall, while there were differences between learning contexts, SRL, and performance, many variables were not significant predictors of performance. Online learners who were confident, managed their time well and regulated their efforts saw the greatest benefits, though these effects were small when viewed individually. Blended learners, to a lesser extent, also benefited from confidence and effort regulation. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to test SRL characteristics as drivers of performance during a formative task across two learning contexts.

Existing studies have shed light on policies and strategies for learning analytics (LA) adoption, yet there is limited understanding of associations among factors that influence adoption processes or the change in priorities when institutional experience with LA increases. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a study based on interviews with institutional leaders from 27 European higher education institutions. Results showed that experienced institutions demonstrated more interest in exploring learning behaviour and pedagogical reformation than simply measuring a phenomenon. Experienced institutions also paid more attention to methodological approaches to LA than data constraints, and demonstrated a broader involvement of teachers and students. This paper also identifies inter-related connections between prevailing challenges that impede the scaling of LA. Based on the results, we suggest regular evaluations of LA adoption to ensure the alignment of strategy and desired changes. We also identify three areas that require particular attention when forming short-term goals for LA at different phases of adoption