The effect of recommendation systems on Internet‐based learning for different learners: A data mining analysis

A general challenge facing Internet‐based learners is how to identify information objects which are helpful in expanding their understanding of important information in a domain. Recommendation systems may assist learners in identifying potentially helpful information objects. However, the recent literature mainly focuses on the technical performance, rather than on how recommendations support searching in educational contexts. This study thus investigates how recommendation systems may influence the searching behaviors and strategies of different learners, when they are used with a mind map. The results suggested two main different searching behavioral patterns, namely focused searchers and broad searchers. It is found that the recommendations may influence the searching behaviors of the two types of searchers in different ways. For the focused searchers, the recommendations may support these searchers to expand their keywords to explore the domain. Regarding the broad searchers, they did not rely on the computer recommendations. However, the mind map interface applied along with the recommendations may support them in monitoring their searching processes. Online Information Searching Strategies Inventory (OISSI) was applied to examine the participants' perceptions of how students applied information searching strategies. The results of OISSI support that both types of searchers perceived a higher level of searching strategies when they search with the recommendation system and mind maps.     

Ideology,nationalism, and education: the case of education reforms in the two Koreas

Asia Pacific Education Review - This research explores the influences of ideology and nationalism on education reforms in South and North Korea through a comparative historical analysis of...     

The distance learner competencies: a three-phased empirical approach

This study identifies a set of competencies displayed in the successful distance learner. It employed a three-phased approach. Phase I, conducted to develop an initial list of competencies, comprised Behavioral Event Interviews with nine successful distance learners. In Phase II, these competencies were reviewed, elaborated and categorized by seven distance education experts by means of semi-structured interviews. A list of 15 competencies in 5 clusters was then developed and in Phase III, these competencies and clusters were verified quantitatively by surveying 197 successful distance learners. The results reveal that all of these 15 competencies are critically important to, and commonly displayed by, successful distance learners and that of these, management skills is the most important. The findings and their implications are examined and the paper concludes with suggestions for further research into learner competencies.     

Accessing the Audience Community: How Newspapers Connect with Audience Communities in Finland,Japan, and Korea

The article contributes to the research on media management by approaching the audience as consisting of communities, instead of considering it a mass audience. By developing audience community as a concept in media management and audience research and investigating mainstream newspapers’ perceptions and practices of audience community relations, the study aims to provide a future outlook for the changing community nature of audiences. Newspaper organizations are starting to perceive the audience as a more concrete network of people, and journalistic processes can increasingly consist of generating platforms and practices for communication and communal activities with and among the audience. In the article, these processes are studied empirically by means of a qualitative study carried out in Finnish, Japanese, and Korean newspapers. Interestingly, the findings indicate that audience communities do not, after all, play an important role in the daily practices of the newspapers. The engagement with audience communities in social media is only occasional, intermittent, and by no means systematic. By contrast, interaction with offline communities seems to be more familiar and considered more valuable than connecting with audience communities in social media.     

Roles of a teacher and researcher during in situ professional development around the implementation of mathematical modeling tasks

Partnership with teachers for professional development has been considered beneficial because of the potential of collaborative work in the teacher’s own classroom to be relevant to practice. From this perspective, both teachers and researchers can draw on their own expertise and work as authentic partners. In this study, we address the need for such collaboration and focus on how a teacher and a researcher performed their roles when collaboratively implementing mathematical modeling tasks within a context of in situ professional development. Using multi-tier design-based research, as a framework, a researcher worked in a teacher’s classroom to implement a series of research-based mathematical modeling activities. A broad corpus of data from this interaction was analyzed, including audio recordings of interviews with the teacher, video recordings of three mathematical modeling lessons, researcher field notes and journal reflections, instructional materials, and students’ written work using the principles for designing activities for teachers. The emerging roles and relationships between the teacher and the researcher were documented, as (1) the researcher implemented the professional development, (2) the teacher shared her concerns, (3) the researcher responded to the teacher’s challenges, and (3) the teacher reflected on student development. As a case study of collaboration, the participants’ roles and strategies to overcome challenges and achieve shared objectives can benefit teachers and researchers who plan to collaboratively implement modeling in the classroom. The study supports the value and viability of this form of in situ professional development, indicating that significant changes in teachers’ thinking about their students’ mathematical model development can occur in relatively short periods of time.     

Development of an instrument for measuring cognitive conflict in secondary‐level science classes

Based on conceptual change theory, cognitive conflict is known as an important factor in conceptual change even though there are still questions about its positive and negative effects on science learning. However, there is no reliable method by which to assess the cognitive conflict students experience in their learning. The purpose of this research was to develop an instrument for measuring secondary students' cognitive conflict levels as they learned science. The results of this study indicate that our instrument is a valid and reliable tool for measuring cognitive conflict levels. Factor analysis supported the model that cognitive conflict consists of four constructs: recognition of an anomalous situation, interest, anxiety, and cognitive reappraisal of the conflict situation. Implications for instruction and possibilities for future research are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 585–603, 2003     

Construction of a large-scale test set for author disambiguation

Author disambiguation resolves same-name author occurrences in the bibliographic data into namesakes. This enables author-centered searches and high-quality social network analysis. As an attempt to promote much research in author disambiguation, KISTI have constructed a new large-scale test set for this field. This article describes its semi-manual creation procedures, characteristics especially in terms of author ambiguities and name diversities. In addition, the baseline performance of author clustering against the test set is provided.     

The impact of past performance on information valuation in virtual communities: Empirical study in online stock message boards

Unlike other types of virtual communities, individuals participate in online stock message boards for their material needs rather than non-material needs (e.g., sense of belonging). They may seek and read others’ opinions to make better investment performances. The value of information in online stock message boards may vary from person to person according to their past investment experiences. However, little is known regarding how their past investment performance influences the value of others’ opinions. Therefore, our study investigates how individuals process others’ opinions on stock message boards for their investment decisions when they have different levels of past investment performance. We proposed the unique research model with two paths consisting of both online stock message board factors and individual factors to determine continuous use of online stock message boards. We conducted SEM analysis with 452 questionnaire data. The results, first, showed that message boards factors (e.g., satisfaction using others’ opinions) have a positive impact on continuous intention to use while their own satisfaction with past investment activities has a negative impact on continuous intention to use. In addition, we believe that this is one of the few papers to examine the moderating role of self-attribution bias on the effects of stock investment performance. Our results indicated that investors with strong self-attribution bias lower the usefulness of opinions when losing money while they increased confidence in their investment-related abilities when achieving a profit from investment. This study will help to support and extend the theory of IS continuance model while providing practical insights for online stock message board managers by suggesting ways to vitalize online stock message boards.