Facilitating flexible learning by replacing classroom time with an online learning environment: A systematic review of blended learning in higher education

Higher education institutions are trying to provide more flexibility and individualization, which is mainly realized through the use of new technologies and implemented in online or blended learning designs. This systematic review aims to investigate the impact of replacing classroom time with an online learning environment. The meta-analysis (k = 21 effect sizes) applied strict inclusion criteria concerning research design, measurement of learning outcomes and implementation of blended learning. The estimated effect size (Hedge's g) was positive, although not significantly different from zero and the confidence interval [-0.13, 0.25], suggesting that overall differences between blended and conventional classroom learning are small, and, at best, very small negative or moderate positive effects are plausible. This means that despite a reduction in classroom time between 30 and 79 per cent, equivalent learning outcomes were found. Consequently, blended learning with reduced classroom time is not systematically more or less effective than conventional classroom learning.     

The RIX Wiki: the use of multimedia advocacy to support person-centred planning in a special needs secondary school – implications for current policy and practice

The article documents findings from a pilot study undertaken in 2012–2013 in a special needs secondary school in the England, that trialled the use of a multimedia advocacy tool, “The RIX Wiki”. The trial was part of the pathfinder programme, which aimed to reform existing Special Education Needs provision, from the system of statementing to one of developing education health care plans. The reforms became enshrined in the Children and Families Act (2014). The findings were overall positive and helped with person-centred planning processes. The discussion is framed within current and future policy directives. We argue that multimedia advocacy approaches and software tools, like the “RIX Wiki” will have a continued role to play in ensuring the needs, aspirations and choices of children and young people with learning disabilities remain central.     

高职院校学习预警平台的构建及其实证分析

开展信息化、智慧化预警工作是实现全面精准育人的重要途径,而预警应用平台无疑是预警工作的有力工具和实践载体,其设计方案应用效果的好坏直接决定着学习预警信息化愿景的达成度。文章在分析高职院校学习预警工作现状的基础上,从工作流程设计、平台框架设计和平台建设方法等3个方面提出了解决方案,并对平台的应用效果进行了实证分析,结果表明:平台的应用扩展了预警范围、提升了预警的精准度和时效性、提高了工作效率,且干预更为灵活、个性化,可为当前高职院校学习危机的实践改革提供新思路。     

Quality flaw prediction in Spanish Wikipedia: A case of study with verifiability flaws

In this work, we present the first quality flaw prediction study for articles containing the two most frequent verifiability flaws in Spanish Wikipedia: articles which do not cite any references or sources at all (denominated Unreferenced) and articles that need additional citations for verification (so-called Refimprove). Based on the underlying characteristics of each flaw, different state-of-the-art approaches were evaluated. For articles not citing any references, a well-established rule-based approach was evaluated and interesting findings show that some of them suffer from Refimprove flaw instead. Likewise, for articles that need additional citations for verification, the well-known PU learning and one-class classification approaches were evaluated. Besides, new methods were compared and a new feature was also proposed to model this latter flaw. The results showed that new methods such as under-bagged decision trees with sum or majority voting rules, biased-SVM, and centroid-based balanced SVM, perform best in comparison with the ones previously published.     

Parents’ son preference,childhood adverse experience and mental health in old age: Evidence from China

BackgroundSon preference is an enduring phenomenon in China and may often be related to childhood adverse experiences. According to a life-course perspective, adverse experiences during a childhood period may have a long-term effect on mental health in later age. However, little is known about this relationship between parents’ son preference, childhood adverse experiences and adulthood mental health in China.ObjectiveThe study aims to evaluate the association of parents’ son preference and individual mental health in old age in China. The mediating role of childhood adverse experiences was also estimated.Participants and settingThe China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2015 combined with CHARLS life history survey was analyzed (N = 11,666).MethodsMental health was measured by a shortened modification of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale including seven items, and higher scores indicated worse mental health status. A four-step mediating model was applied.ResultsRespondents growing in families with son preference had on average 0.75 (P < 0.001) points higher on the mental health scale than their counterparts, and the effects were consistent for both males and females. Childhood adverse experiences measured by physical maltreatment, emotional adverse experiences and witnesses of inter-parent violence mediated the relationship between parents’ son preference and individual adulthood mental health by 47.87%. For females, physical maltreatment and emotional adverse experiences explained the most parts of health effects of parents’ son preference, whereas witnesses of inter-parent violence was the most influential mediator for males.ConclusionParents’ son preference led to adverse childhood experiences, which influenced mental health in adulthood.     

韩国电子竞技发展的特点及其对我国的启示

通过对韩国电子竞技的发展及现状进行研究分析,发现其主要得益于政府政策的大力扶植;良好的社会群众基础;优秀的人才培养体系;媒体、企业的大力支持等。同时为我国电子竞技日后的良好发展提出以下建议:制定相关政策法规,加大政府对电竞的支持度;创设良好的舆论氛围,增强社会对电竞的认可度;完善人才培养体系,为电竞发展输送优质人才;加强媒体正面报道,吸引大型企业的资金帮助。     

中国共产党领导下的大连福岛纺织株式会社工人大罢工

1926年4月27日,因无法忍受日本资本家的残酷压榨和剥削,大连福岛纺织株式会社1000余名工人举行了声势浩大的罢工。罢工过程中,日本资本家采取了种种惨无人道的压迫手段逼迫工人复工。在中国共产党的领导下,工人们团结一致,坚定信念,最终取得罢工斗争的胜利,充分展示了中国工人阶级的强大力量,而中国共产党的领导对此次罢工的胜利起到了决定性的作用。     

大学生孤独感对手机成瘾倾向的影响:生命意义感的调节作用

为了探究大学生孤独感、手机成瘾倾向和生命意义感之间的关系,采用UCLA孤独量表、大学生手机成瘾倾向量表、人生意义感问卷,选取408名大学生作为被试进行问卷调查。结果发现:(1)孤独感与手机成瘾倾向呈显著性正相关,生命意义感与手机成瘾倾向呈显著性负相关,孤独感和生命意义感相关性不显著;(2)孤独感和生命意义感都显著预测手机成瘾倾向,生命意义感在孤独感和手机成瘾倾向之间的调节效应显著,低生命意义感大学生的孤独感对手机成瘾倾向的预测力更强。因此,大学生的孤独感能正向预测手机成瘾倾向,生命意义感能调节二者之间的关系,低水平的生命意义感会加剧孤独感对手机成瘾倾向的预测作用,而高水平的生命意义感会使孤独感对手机成瘾倾向的影响较小。     

An analysis of review content and reviewer variables that contribute to review helpfulness

Review helpfulness is attracting increasing attention of practitioners and academics. It helps in reducing risks and uncertainty faced by users in online shopping. This study examines uninvestigated variables by looking at not only the review characteristics but also important indicators of reviewers. Several significant review content and two reviewer variables are proposed and an effective review helpfulness prediction model is built using stochastic gradient boosting learning method. This study derived a mechanism to extract novel review content variables from review text. Six popular machine learning models and three real-life Amazon review data sets are used for analysis. Our results are robust to several product categories and along three Amazon review data sets. The results show that review content variables deliver the best performance as compared to the reviewer and state-of-the-art baseline as a standalone model. This study finds that reviewer helpfulness per day and syllables in review text strongly relates to review helpfulness. Moreover, the number of space, aux verb, drives words in review text and productivity score of a reviewer are also effective predictors of review helpfulness. The findings will help customers to write better reviews, help retailers to manage their websites intelligently and aid customers in their product purchasing decisions.