Internet and Higher Education最新文献

Students with learning disabilities meet difficulties in cognitive abilities that are likely to affect their learning, especially online learning. Online learning usually lacks efficient face-to-face monitoring and leads to poor learning outcomes; in this case, students' self-regulated learning in an online environment matter. However, Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) status remains unclear for those with learning disabilities and how their working memory and processing speed affect self-regulated learning. A total of 147 undergraduate students were recruited from three public and four private universities in Taiwan to join this study, and they completed a self-reported questionnaire and several psychological measures. Our results revealed significant differences in SRL features between typically developing Chinese undergraduates and those with learning disabilities in an online environment. Compared to the students with learning disabilities, typically developing students outperformed in metacognitive skills, time management, environmental structuring, and persistence. Help-seeking was comparable between both groups. Working memory significantly contributed to SRL in all students, whereas processing speed only significantly influenced SRL in students with learning disabilities. The findings of this study have important implications for educators, researchers, and instructional designers aiming to optimize online learning experiences and support, especially from the perspective of SRL, for all students, particularly those with learning disabilities.

Collaborative knowledge construction has been used in higher education to support student groups' collaborative learning activities through students' exchange, negotiation, and reflection of perspectives through peer communications. To support this process, collaborative learning analytics tools have been designed to collect and analyze collaborative process and performance data with a goal to provide actionable feedback and improve learning quality. However, few tools have demonstrated the mechanism and details about how students develop their perspectives during the collaborative knowledge construction process in higher education. To fill this gap, this research proposed a tool named Collaborative Argument Map (CAM) that creatively visualized different types of perspectives students proposed from the individual, peer, and group levels. This tool was further implemented in a graduate-level course in online collaborative writing activities in China's higher education, with a goal to support students' knowledge construction with peers. The summative and process-oriented learning analytics approaches were conducted to reveal the effects of CAM on students' collaborative perceptions, processes, and final products. Results showed that most students made substantive use of the CAM tool and reported positive perceptions of the tool. Further examinations verified the tool's positive effects on improving the students' cognitive engagement levels and the quality of their final collaborative writing products. This research provided practical implications for future CLA tool design and instructional implications for using this type of tool in collaborative learning in higher education.

Social presence (SP) positively influences online students' motivation, satisfaction, retention, and learning outcomes. Although crucial for successful online learning experiences, little work has examined the evolution of SP over time or the effect of peer-interaction on SP. Using a longitudinal social network analysis approach (i.e., stochastic actor-oriented model), we investigated how SP perceptions evolved over a cohort of three consecutive courses. Students were asked to nominate peers with whom they share affectively in the course and to report their SP perceptions. The results suggest that over time learners reciprocate nominations, and those who nominated more peers reported higher levels of SP. Although there was no evidence of imitation, the “rich-get-richer-effect” was observed as SP perceptions decreased. Our study contributes to the definition of SP as a perception rather than an ability and reaffirms SP course design as essential at the beginning of an online learning experience.

In this study, we use focus groups, open-ended survey questions, and course observational data to examine aspects of one HyFlex engineering fundamentals course, with sections enrolling almost 500 first year students, that was exemplary in fostering Community of Inquiry (CoI). Findings showcase that attention to joint dynamics of teaching, social, and cognitive presence unique to HyFlex environments contributed to learning and belonging in the course. Implications include strategies for effective HyFlex courses, such as use of the CoI framework in HyFlex courses, interactive tools allowing student engagement across platforms, and opportunities for live student questions, especially with audio capability.

Asynchronous online discussion (AOD) is an essential component of blended learning, and role assignment and timing are two important discussion design considerations. With the purpose of improving blended learning through effective AOD design, this study conducted a two-level factorial experiment to explore the main effects and interaction effects of role assignment and timing on blended learning outcome and experiences. In addition, this experiment examined the influence of role assignment and timing on participants' social communication in AOD and the effects of timing on individual role performance in role-based discussion. A total of 114 participants in a blended course were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions: role-based pre-class discussion (n = 29), role-free pre-class discussion (n = 29), role-based post-class discussion (n = 28), and role-free post-class discussion (n = 28). The results showed that the role assignment strategy featured by initiator, supporter, and arguer has led to improved learning experiences in terms of affection, sense of community, and forum experiences, as well as enhanced social communication in AOD; while timing affected the enactment, contribution, and participation of assigned roles in role-based discussions. However, there was no significant interaction between the two AOD strategies. In general, role-based post-class AOD is recommended after face-to-face lesson because of the better learning experience and role performance.

Asking questions is vital for learning, yet students seldom exhibit this behavior. Given the increasing presence of online classrooms in tertiary education, it is much needed to examine ways to encourage students to ask questions and increase their engagement. Despite the critical role of asking questions to enhance learning, little is known in research on promoting this behavior. Therefore, in this paper, we empirically tested the effect of nudging – a novel approach in education consisting of subtle interventions to change behavior – in online classrooms in tertiary education on question asking behavior, student engagement, and grades. In Experiment 1 (n = 1011), the teacher's virtual background prompted questions (prompt nudge), while in Experiment 2 (n = 449), the teacher set a goal for the students to ask one question per session (goal-setting nudge). We found a trend towards a positive effect of the prompt nudge on questions, but not on grades. Exploratory analyses revealed this was driven by students who already asked many questions. We found no effect of the goal-setting nudge on any measure, nor any effect in either experiment on student engagement. The findings demonstrate that the prompt nudge can be a possible useful and easy to implement tool to encourage questions in the online classroom.

Researchers and practitioners of online education have consistently emphasized the importance of facilitating peer interaction and mutual support to create a sense of community, which in turn may enhance motivation, promote extrinsic accountability, and improve learning outcomes. Despite these assertions, experimental evidence on the effects of peer support in college online courses is limited. To address this gap, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of a study-together group intervention on students' academic and non-cognitive outcomes in a for-credit online course at a public four-year college. Our findings indicate that students who were offered a study-together group reported a higher sense of belonging than those who were not. Additionally, students with lower academic preparation and lower baseline motivation demonstrated improved academic performance as a result of this intervention, while students who preferred passive interaction reported increased motivation. However, for students with higher baseline motivation and those who preferred active interaction, the intervention appeared to negatively influence their time management.

Collaboration skill is one of the most critical skill sets for engineers-to-be while university engineering students have challenges engaging in productive collaborative learning practices. This study examined the effect of individual preparation before collaboration on students' collaborative learning outcomes and processes. A total of 82 engineering undergraduates (41 pairs) participated in the study and collaborated under two conditions: immediate collaboration and individual preparation before collaboration. A mixed-method approach was applied in this study. Students' online-design solutions and verbal discussions were collected for both collaborative learning outcomes and process analyses. Students produced higher quality design solutions with individual preparation before collaboration than immediate collaboration. There were different engineering design behavioral patterns under the two conditions, indicating different ways to define the design problem, generate solutions, and analyze and evaluate solutions. The findings and discussion provide insights for innovating pedagogical design to promote collaborative learning efficiency in real-world university classrooms.

Social reading is a common practice in higher education to engage students in critical reading and classroom dialogues around course materials. This paper introduces a study that integrated a social annotation technology and a scaffolding framework to support social reading in undergraduate classrooms. The framework, grounded in the computer-supported collaborative learning literature, specifies three participation roles—namely, facilitator, synthesizer, and summarizer—that have distinct responsibilities in each week's social reading activities. Using Hypothesis, the social annotation technology, we piloted the framework in a fully online undergraduate course. To examine how the framework facilitated social interaction and knowledge construction, we applied social network analysis and content analysis to a rich dataset. Results revealed that the framework fostered active participation in class with students followed the assigned roles properly. This study has practical implications for online teaching and collaborative learning in higher education.

To provide more useful feedback strategies in DGBL, this study investigated the effects of dynamic feedback (feedback contents adjusted to game task difficulty) and static feedback (the same feedback contents for all tasks) on students' learning by using an educational programming game with easy to difficult game tasks. In addition, a lag sequence analysis was used to analyze the behavior patterns of learners. A sample of 105 university students were randomly assigned to four feedback treatment conditions. The results showed that dynamic feedback, with feedback contents appropriately adjusted to the task difficulty levels (i.e., simple hints after easy game tasks and detailed explanations after difficult game tasks), were more effective in enhancing students' learning achievement and gaming engagement. Furthermore, we also found that providing detailed explanations after both easy and difficult game tasks led to a decrease in learners' engagement. The implications of findings and future research directions are discussed.