Validation of the diagnostic tool for assessing Tertiary students’ readiness for online learning

Increasing numbers of educational institutions are adopting an online approach to teaching and learning; however, little regard has been given to the prerequisite personal and technical qualities required for academic achievement and satisfaction within this environment. In recognition of this, researchers have been exploring the design, development and testing of diagnostic tools to assess student readiness for online learning. This study builds on previous work by the authors to further validate their diagnostic tool for assessing Tertiary students’ readiness for online learning (TSROL) which has four subscales: ‘Technical skills’, ‘Computer self‐efficacy’, ‘Learner preferences’ and ‘Attitudes towards computers’. Factor and reliability analyses revealed that Technical skills and Computer self‐efficacy possessed good reliability and validity, and ‘Attitudes towards computers’ fair reliability and validity. However, ‘Learner preferences’ required revision as it possessed poor reliability and validity. Analysing the demographic data revealed that older students had lower Technical Skills and computer self‐efficacy than younger students. The TSROL can be improved by adopting a more multidimensional interpretation of the Learning preferences and Attitudes towards computers subscales.     

An exploratory study: using Danmaku in online video-based lectures

This exploratory study investigated the use of Danmaku in video-based lectures as a method to enhance learners’ interactions and course engagement in online instruction. Visually, Danmaku is real-time, horizontal, text-based display of commentary that uses subtitles in a manner widely employed in Animation, Comic, and Game (ACG) videos in Asian countries. To assess the potential value of Danmaku for online instruction and learner interaction, this study employed an inductive content analysis using Danmaku from 934 online lecture videos. Data were collected from Bilibili.tv, a video-sharing website based in China. This study concluded that Danmaku could function as an effective way to enhance learners’ interaction, increase course engagement, and improve learning experiences while participating in online video-based lectures.     

Students' insights on the use of video lectures in online classes

Video lectures (VL), considered an effective means for delivering course content and infusing teaching presence in the virtual environment, have become very popular in education. The purpose of this study was to investigate online student experiences with VL focusing on their opinion of usefulness of VL, their satisfaction with them and their perception of learning derived from them. Our findings show that students' satisfaction with VL has a strong relationship with positive overall learning experience and perception of impact of video on learning. Furthermore, VL can enhance a feeling of engagement with content because of learners' control of the media and instructors' presence. The findings also alert us on the importance of careful planning and balanced integration of VL with other course materials. This provides important information on the effectiveness of video-lectures in college teaching and learning and implications for practice in online course design.     

E-portfolios: an assessment tool for online courses

This article considers the various uses of e‐portfolios in an educational context and looks at the particular characteristics of the electronic version of portfolios. It then focuses on the application of the e‐portfolio as an assessment method. A case is made for the use of the e‐portfolio as an appropriate end of course assessment process where learning objects are the basis of the course design. Evaluation data from such a course is presented. This is a post‐graduate online course run by the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University. Conclusions are drawn from the evaluation about the appropriateness of e‐portfolios as an end of course assessment method.     

Evaluating intelligent interfaces for post-editing automatic transcriptions of online video lectures

Video lectures are fast becoming an everyday educational resource in higher education. They are being incorporated into existing university curricula around the world, while also emerging as a key component of the open education movement. In 2007, the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) implemented its poliMedia lecture capture system for the creation and publication of quality educational video content and now has a collection of over 10,000 video objects. In 2011, it embarked on the EU-subsidised transLectures project to add automatic subtitles to these videos in both Spanish and other languages. By doing so, it allows access to their educational content by non-native speakers and the deaf and hard-of-hearing, as well as enabling advanced repository management functions. In this paper, following a short introduction to poliMedia, transLectures and Docència en Xarxa (Teaching Online), the UPV’s action plan to boost the use of digital resources at the university, we will discuss the three-stage evaluation process carried out with the collaboration of UPV lecturers to find the best interaction protocol for the task of post-editing automatic subtitles.     

Performance in e-learning: online participation and student grades

The beneficial effects of learners interacting in online programmes have been widely reported. Indeed, online discussion is argued to promote student‐centred learning. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that the benefits of online discussion should translate into improved student performance. The current study examined the frequency of online interaction of 122 undergraduates and compared this with their grades at the end of the year. The findings revealed that greater online interaction did not lead to significantly higher performance for students achieving passing grades; however, students who failed in their courses tended to interact less frequently. Other factors that may be salient in online interactions are discussed.     

Assessing participation skills: online discussions with peers

Many tertiary-level courses assess students’ participation in tutorial or online discussions. However, in educational and pedagogical research literature, criteria for assessing students’ skills in engaging with peers remain unclear. This article describes an online assignment with a set of participation criteria and a method for assessing the quality of students’ interactions with peers. The assignment focuses on students’ ability to utilise their critical thinking skills while engaging with peers on a particular topic. This includes abilities such as responding to criticism, justifying one’s view and contributing to discussion. While the assignment is designed for a critical thinking course in a philosophy curriculum, the method and participation criteria may be adapted for assessment in other discipline areas.     

Extending participation in standard setting: an online judging proposal

In order for standard setting to retain public confidence, it will be argued there are two important requirements. One is that the judges’ allocation of students to performance bands would yield results broadly consistent with the expectation of the wider educational community. Secondly, in the absence of any change in educational performance, that the percentages in the corresponding bands should be stable over time. It is argued that the use of a small team of judges makes it more difficult to satisfy these conditions. However the cost and logistics of organizing a larger number of judges in the time-pressured atmosphere of public examining can lead to sub-optimal standard setting. Two parallel systems of awarding performance bands are empirically compared, one based on teams of six judges, the other based on a population of teachers. It is shown that the latter system gives more stable results over time for the same large student population. A proposal is outlined for extending participation in standard setting through the web-based presentation of materials and the capturing of cutscores from a population of teachers.     

A tool for monitoring the development of written English: T-unit analysis using the SAWL

The article reports the development of the Structural Analysis of Written Language (SAWL), an instrument designed for use by classroom teachers in objectively documenting the ability of children to write in English. The SAWL allows teachers to use T-unit analysis to quantitatively assess language improvement regardless of whether the student writes perfect English, flawed English, and/or generates "wordstrings" with minimal English structure. The SAWL introduces two new indexes of linguistic maturity, morphemes per T-unit (MTU) and the word efficiency ratio (WER). The SAWL also allows teachers to (a) objectively compare a child's written composition with printed material and (b) make a seamless comparison of a student's written English across his or her academic life using the same indexes of measurement.     

A case study of the development of WebPA: An online peer-moderated marking tool

Peer moderation of group work in higher education is rapidly advancing through the use of technological developments and is increasingly being informed by pedagogical research. The highly successful WebPA online assessment system has gone through a number of development phases over its 15-year history and has now evolved into a relatively mature and flexible tool for facilitating group work. This paper presents a case study of the approaches that have been used in the system's development from the technical perspective, and describes how the scope of the project has massively expanded and that the development has been continually backed by a sound and wide-ranging pedagogy. The benefits of using the online system are shown to be underpinned throughout by examples of good practice in the supervision of academic group work. A critical evaluation of the tool and surrounding pedagogical practices highlight future areas for technical expansion.     

Development of a participation style scale for online instructional discussions

Educational technology research and development - The purpose of this study is to develop a standardized measurement tool that can be used to determine the participation styles of individuals...     

Analyzing cohesion in language samples of college students: A diagnostic tool

This paper presents a clinically derived system of analyzing reading miscues of college students and comparing the observed patterns to a student’s oral expressive language. By looking for consistencies and contrasting the observed patterns with what is now known about the cohesive development of language within and across its spoken and written forms, and by looking for places in which the expected continuity is not apparent in the individual case, we can identify many of the barriers to successful learning. An important attribute of the new technique is that it can be used in varied contexts. The contexts can be tailored to suit the actual coursework that a student does or will encounter and the analysis still provides comparative data. The method includes a system of giving assessment feedback to the students that allows for their input and therefore helps them identify with treatment recommendations that are being suggested to overcome long-standing learning blocks.     

The impact of an online tool for monitoring and regulating learning at university: overconfidence,learning strategy,and personality

Being overconfident when estimating scores for an upcoming exam is a widespread phenomenon in higher education and presents threats to self-regulated learning and academic performance. The present study sought to investigate how overconfidence and poor monitoring accuracy vary over the length of a college course, and how an intervention consisting of (1) a monitoring exercise and (2) a monitoring and regulation strategy, improves students’ monitoring accuracy and academic performance. Moreover, we investigated how personality factors (i.e., grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, optimism) influence monitoring accuracy. We found that the Monitoring and Regulation Strategy positively influenced monitoring accuracy and exam scores, whereas the Monitoring Exercise that confronted students with their overconfidence protected students against overconfidence in the second exam score prediction but did not affect exam score. The results further revealed that exam score predictions lowered from the start to the end of the course for both poor and high performing students, but still leaving poor performers overconfident and high performers underconfident. Topic knowledge gained in the course did not wash out the Dunning Kruger effect, and results indicate that poor and high performers use different cues when predicting exam scores. Both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism contributed to overconfidence on exam score predictions but not on the Monitoring Exercise. These findings underline the potential of the Monitoring and Regulation Strategy intervention and ask for upscaling it to include measurements of self-regulated learning activities.     

A capability approach for online primary and secondary students with disabilities

A capability approach was used to identify and synthesise research studies about online students with disabilities in primary and secondary school (aged five to 18 years) in an attempt to describe the experience from an empirical perspective. A capability approach is intended to maximise agency and can be used to describe the extent to which individuals are able to use limited resources to build a satisfying and enjoyable life. In this analysis, a derived capability set was used to narrow the larger body of research about primary and secondary students in online education in order to consider only studies that described ways in which students successfully used online education to maximise agency. The derived capability set was: autonomy, judgement, practical reason, affiliation, high school graduation and a desire to help others. A method for deriving the capability set and ways in which a capability approach fails to describe this experience are discussed.     

以美的教学语言激发学生的听课兴趣

教学是一门科学,也是一门艺术。教学语言艺术是教学艺术的核心。教师的语言美对学生的语言习惯、逻辑思维的培养与形成都起着很大的作用。美的教学语言不仅能引发学生听课的兴趣,而且还会使学生在轻松愉悦中获取知识,发展智能,提高审美情趣。优秀教师的授课过程都十分讲究语言的美。     

Conceptualizing the use of online technologies for gifted secondary students

In an era where technology is advancing at a rapid pace, and where information is readily accessible on the World Wide Web, educators should be capitalizing on these resources for gifted students. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to support individualized and independent learning within a network of peers that will provide challenging interactions through extensive use of online learning. Online resources and technologies promote the exploration of new concepts and sharing of new learning with a group of motivated and “like‐minded” peers.