Horizon Report Research Articles

Implications and Challenges of Technology Adoption in Education: A 20-Year Analysis of Horizon Reports

Implications and Challenges of Technology Adoption in Education: A 20-Year Analysis of Horizon Reports

Editorial

In this issue of the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, evidence-based practice continues to be emphasized, in addition to providing information reflecting trends in a rapidly evolving education space. According to the most recent Horizon Report, multiple trends overlap specifically with topics addressed in our journal: the widespread adoption of hybrid learning models, increased use of learning technologies, online faculty development, and quality online learning. We invite you to review the content summary of this journal issue.

User-Centered Software Design: User Interface Redesign for Blockly–Electron, Artificial Intelligence Educational Software for Primary and Secondary Schools

According to the 2021 and 2022 Horizon Report, AI is emerging in all areas of education, in various forms of educational aids with various applications, and is carving out a similarly ubiquitous presence across campuses and classrooms. This study explores a user-centered approach used in the design of the AI educational software by taking the redesign of the user interface of AI educational software Blockly–Electron as an example. Moreover, by analyzing the relationship between the four variables of software usability, the abstract usability is further certified so as to provide ideas for future improvements to the usability of AI educational software. User-centered design methods and attribution analysis are the main research methods used in this study. The user-centered approach was structured around four phases. Overall, seventy-three middle school students and five teachers participated in the study. The USE scale will be used to measure the usability of Blockly–Electron. Five design deliverables and an attribution model were created and discovered in the linear relationship between Ease of Learning, Ease of Use, Usefulness and Satisfaction, and Ease of use as a mediator variable, which is significantly different from the results of previous regression analysis for the USE scale. This study provides a structural user-centered design methodology with quantitative research. The deliverables and the attribution model can be used in the AI educational software design. Furthermore, this study found that usefulness and ease of learning significantly affect the ease of use, and ease of use significantly affects satisfaction. Based on this, the usability will be further concretized to facilitate the production of software with greater usability.

Contextualising Horizon: Connecting community to envision Australasia’s future educational technologies and practices

Over its 18-year history, the Horizon Report, originating in the United States, has become an important tool for administrators, academics and practitioners in envisioning future technologies likely to impact higher education and in determining institutional strategy. ASCILITE’s Contextualising Horizon project aims to complement the Horizon Report and provide an Australasian regional lens to trends in educational technologies and practices. Beginning in 2021, Contextualising Horizon is a project aimed to connect members of the ASCILITE community and affiliates to engage in environmental scanning and evidencing the current state of play in higher education and the educational technologies and practices likely to be of importance in the 12-18 months following the process. This paper highlights the process of Contextualising Horizon, key findings, and plans for future iterations of the project.

The Results of the Project Higher Education Teachers' Digital Literacy Improvement

The ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution and the environment of digitalisation have a significant impact on the whole society. This development also affects the education system, especially higher education teachers. It is necessary to adequately respond to the mentioned changes, as confirmed by the international document ‘Horizon Report’ or the national document ‘Digital Education Strategy for 2020’. According to these documents, modern teachers need to use digital technologies to support pedagogical approach and didactic practice. Therefore, the University of Finance and Administration (VŠFS) educates its teachers also in the field of digitalisation. For this reason, in 2020, 2021 and 2022 VŠFS implemented the European Economic Area (EEA) project focused on improving the digital literacy of higher education teachers (EHP-CZ-MOP-2-003).

News from the Field

ACRL 2019-20, 2020-21 fiscal year financial reports now available 2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report Teaching and Learning Edition released ARL, CARL, Ithaka S+R release final report on aligning the research library to organizational strategy ACRL releases Interim Leadership in Libraries Peer Review: A Critical Primer and Practical Course now available New from ACRL—Your Craft as a Teaching Librarian CUPA-HR releases annual workforce surveys ASERL expands oral history collection

Digital Agenda, New Technologies and Education for the Integration of Europe: an Economic Study

New technologies are a key factor for integration in Europe by enabling citizens to solve their daily problems and interact with people everywhere. The European Commission established the Digital Agenda for Europe with the aim of improving the speed of navigation, establishing a single market for telecommunications and achieving a digital single market. We highlight the importance of applying new technologies in the field of education, since teaching and learning through these means will contribute to increasing creativity and reasoning capacity, allowing for more interactive and participative learning. The Horizon Report and the new emerging technologies proposed by that report are analysed, and are aimed not only at facilitating learning, but also at enabling a more integrated Europe. It also presents some technological ideas to be developed in the educational field that will enhance the development and integration of the EU Member States. Furthermore, in order to analyse the influence of the use of the Internet and new technologies on other socio-economic variables, a regression analysis has been carried out. The objective is to study whether in any way the fact that citizens use the Internet affects variables such as Gross Domestic Product, unemployment or Human Development Index which may affect the integration of Europe.

Identification and evaluation of technology trends in K-12 education from 2011 to 2021.

Educational technologies have captured the attention of researchers, policy makers, and parents. Each year, considerable effort and money are invested into new technologies, hoping to find the next effective learning tool. However, technology changes rapidly and little attention is paid to the changes after they occur. This paper provides an overall picture of the changing trends in educational technology by analyzing the Horizon Reports’ predictions of the most influential educational technologies from 2011 to 2021, identifying larger trends across these yearly predictions, and by using bibliometric analysis to evaluate the accuracy of the identified trends. The results suggest that mobile and analytics technologies trended consistently across the period, there was a trend towards maker technologies and games in the early part of the decade, and emerging technologies (e.g., VR, AI) are predicted to trend in the future. Overall, the specific technologies focused on by the HRs’ predictions and by educational researchers’ publications seem to coincide with the availability of consumer grade technologies, suggesting that the marketplace and technology industry is driving trends (cf., pedagogy or theory).

Re-visioning the Student Experience

Abstract
 
 COVID-19 has fundamentally shifted higher education into uncharted waters. It was a tsunami of change pushing courses, students and academics online. Research is now pointing to a student-centered approach that embeds digital for the long term. Luckily, chaos is often where we encounter innovation. So, how do we build on 2020, learn from it and come up with breakthrough ideas that support change? How do we get our teams onboard and leverage the momentum to make the change sustainable?
 
 As a Client Experience Manager for Blackboard I am privileged to get in depth insights into challenges and learnings with higher education clients across Australia and New Zealand. I will share some insights from the institutions that I work with as well as research on the impact of COVID-19 on higher education. We will also look at how to use design thinking, a human-centered approach to innovation, to help you to understand student needs, rapidly prototype new approaches and generate creative ideas. This approach can help you to generate your own wave of change, transforming products, services and processes by combining what is feasible with what is economically viable.
 References
 
 Learning and teaching reimagined: A new dawn for higher education?, Jisc, November 2020, Professor David Maguire, interim principal and vice-chancellor, University of Dundee Chair, learning and teaching reimagined Louisa Dale, director of insight, Jisc Michelle Pauli, Michelle Pauli Editorial
 
 Envisioning the Future of Higher Ed in a Post-pandemic World, Dian Schaffhauser, 10 February 2020, retrieved from https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/10/02/envisioning-the-future-of-higher-ed-in-a-post-pandemic-world.aspx?m=1
 
 Learning from lockdown: 12 steps to eliminate digital exclusion, Georgina Bowyer, Anna Grant and Douglas White, 2020, Carnegie Trust UK.
 
 Horizon Report 2020, Educause Publications, 2020. Retrieved from https://library.educause.edu/resources/2020/3/2020-educause-horizon-report-teaching-and-learning-edition
 Higher Education Remade by COVID-19, Deloitte Center for Higher Education Excellence, May 2020.

The Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is seeping into many aspects of our everyday lives, with common internet applications, smartphones and even household appliances. Within education, AI is a rapidly emerging field and there is a strong potential for AI to greatly extend and enhance teaching and learning in higher education (Crompton et al., 2020). AI is defined as “computing systems that are able to engage in human-like processes such as learning, adapting, synthesizing, self-correction and use of data for complex processing tasks” (Popenici & Kerr, 2017). In the Horizon Report 2020 report (Brown et al., 2020), AI is listed as one of six technologies with the potential for high impact in higher education. The Horizon Report (2020), is an annual publication that examines the major trends in educational technology that are shaping global higher education. This paper will highlight some of the ways AI is supporting both students and faculty members including bespoke learning, intelligent tutoring systems, facilitating collaboration, and automated grading. This is followed by a section on ethical implications.

Study on the Deep Learning of Physics Review Course in Junior Middle School Based on CRS

Deep learning is an important research topic in the field of educational technology, the Horizon Report released by the New Media Alliance in 2017 points out that deep learning is a key direction in promoting educational development and reform. This research is based on the CRS review discussion teaching mode, applying classroom response system in interactive teaching environment, in order to promot students' deep learning. Aiming at the problems of single teaching method, simple classroom communication, fuzzy monitoring of learning situation and low efficiency of teaching goal in junior high school physics review course, this paper takes junior high school physics review course as an example, discusses the teaching efficiency of CRS-based review course qualitatively, and uses comparative experiment to analyze the difference between teaching effect, students' deep learning achievement degree and learning type. The results show that, Based on the CRS junior high school physics review class in-depth learning model can improve students' academic performance, enhance the degree of achievement of students' deep learning. Therefore, we should actively explore the deep integration path of CRS and physics teaching, give full play to the advantages of CRS in focusing on the core issues in the classroom, evaluation of innovative learning process to improve the effectiveness of physics teaching.

Modern education technologies: 21stcentury trends and challenges

Since modern technologies produce new global education trends, education prospects redesign, and new opportunities and threats assessments are needed. The new educational technology development phase was researched as an answer to modern world challenges. The strategic priorities of education in the EU are analyzed. New technologies, practices, and related needs: financing, digital integration, accessibility, informational security were studied and generalized. Higher education key trends and their transformation in the context of the COVID-19 crisis new opportunities and threats were researched. The analysis of the seven years of NMC Horizon and other research emerging educational technologies adoption forecasts provided in the research shows significant discrepancies related to extreme uncertainty. Five educational trend groups from the NMC Horizon report 2020 were reviewed. The author defined the remote education tools and their importance on the example of the university providing online/mixed learning. The anonymous polls among lecturers and students performed in the spring of 2020 (just after the COVID-19 quarantine announcement) show the most highly demanded tools are Google Meet, email, specific learning systems such as Moodle. The barriers to fully-fledged remote education are technical problems and occasionally poor Internet connectivity. The participants are quite ready to learn and to use digital tools for education. However, the absence of live communication increases workload during online learning, and other factors arise as the factors lowering student activity. During severe transformation, the main tasks of education are accessibility and diversity.

Fomento del Mobile Learning en educación alrededor de la última década. Un estudio de caso en españa través de una selección de aportaciones.

En la actualidad educativa las TIC han propiciado de manera inevitable el uso de los dispositivos móviles en el aula y en concreto del teléfono móvil como herramienta educativa. Desde hace años se desarrolla literatura al respecto y se han llevado a cabo proyectos y actividades educativas que lo promocionan. Se trata de una de las metodologías educativas emergentes que ha ido en aumento paulatinamente, se va integrando en la escuela tímidamente y, en algunos casos, con ciertos prejuicios sobre su uso. El siguiente escrito aborda el desarrollo del Mobile Learning o Aprendizaje en Movilidad en la segunda década del siglo XXI en el Estado Español. Damos cuenta de la divulgación científica acontecida, según algunos autores, y en concreto de tesis doctorales publicadas en los últimos años. Analizamos el apoyo a este nuevo paradigma educativo a través de organismos como la Unesco, Fundación Telefónica, así como mediante reuniones científicas y Simposios Internacionales sobre las perspectivas de implementación. También revisamos los datos más destacados respecto al Informe Horizon, centrándonos principalmente en la educación superior. La metodología utilizada en el presente trabajo ha sido el análisis de contenido desde la perspectiva investigadora cualitativa, a partir de la descripción e interpretación de las fuentes consultadas. Finalmente, ofrecemos un punto de vista sobre cuál es en el momento actual la aportación educativa de los dispositivos móviles dentro de la metodología Mobile Learning.

Maker Space: A Beginner Way to Imparting Library for Adani Institute of Infrastructure Engineering

Adani Institute of Infrastructure Engineering (AIIE) is established to equip the students to become modern-day engineers and managers primarily for the infrastructure and allied sectors. The Institute is presently conducting three Bachelor Programmes in Engineering. 1. BE- Civil & Infrastructure Engineering, 2.BE-Electrical Engineering, 3.BE -Information & Communication Technology. Adani Institute of Infrastructure Library embarked on a change journey in 2008 for services in support of the education. The concept for creating a maker space for engineering students within the library to foster activity -based learning. Maker spaces are over just places to create things; a maker space may be a physical location wherever people gather to share resources and knowledge, work on projects, network, and build. The NMC Horizon Report: 2015 higher education the paper examines the awareness and importance of library maker spaces. A questionnaire was used for collection of data. Around 50 questionnaires were distributed among the students. A total of 30 stuffed in questionnaires were selected for analysis of the data. While there is a push to include maker spaces in universities, very little is understood regarding the expertise of establishing maker spaces on engineering campuses. Typically, these maker spaces contain 3D printers and laser cutters, and offer facilities to conduct work, personal and collaborative projects. The idea for creating a maker space for engineering library is promotional activity-based learning. Maker spaces are over just places to make things; a maker space may be a physical location wherever people gather to share resources and knowledge, work practical projects, network, and build. Libraries that have lengthy been substitutable with peace and tranquillity are currently thought of as a part in which there have to be a stability between quiet surroundings and social dynamic mood. The intention of this study is to observe the importance of maker space of engineering libraries that is tremendously needed in technological advancements and alteration of ancient systems with new ones. This analysis consists of reviewing the domestic samples, conforming examples to library maker space and inspecting numerous libraries over a duration of time. The outcomes of this find out about indicate that generally, modern libraries have fewer areas for paper books and publications and individual study, instead, bigger spaces are committed to locations for cluster studies and the use of computer and maker space etc. This trade has influenced the function of the library space and maker space.

Application Trends and Evolution of Emerging Technologies in Higher Education

Educational technologies are more and more important for the higher education. The applications and developments of emerging educational technology proposed by The Horizon Report (Higher Education Edition) in the past five years were summarized. The key technological trends in the reports were compared and analyzed. The effects of artificial intelligence on teaching, learning and creative inquiry were emphasized. Based on the previous analysis, the evolution of intelligent technology, interactive technology and engineering innovation are pointed out.

Models of good teaching practices for mobile learning in higher education

Mobile learning is an emerging teaching methodology in the university system. Every year, the International Horizon Reports highlight the trend of implementing mobile devices in the classroom. Therefore, the Spanish university system presents the current challenge of adapting these resources to improve student learning, in line with the knowledge society in which we are immersed. This requires examples of good teaching practice. The purposes of this paper were to evaluate the mobile learning (m-learning) practices implemented by university teachers and to compile experiences on good teaching practices of m-learning developed in the classroom. A mixed method was used in which the responses of 1125 professors from 59 different universities located throughout Spain were analyzed. The APMU scale developed by the authors was applied for the detection of good teaching practices of m-learning and the structured interview for the collection of concrete experiences of good teaching practices. The results showed that the largest proportion of good teaching practices were concentrated at the University of La Laguna, University of Almeria, University of La Rioja, Camilo José Cela University and University of Seville. Furthermore, three experiences carried out by teachers who were agents of good practice were collected. Based on this, three models of good teaching practices were generated and exemplified through the concept mapping technique. Finally, the main findings and implications of the study are discussed.

Tendencias, desafíos y desarrollos de la educación a distancia y virtual en la universidad venezolana

Las tendencias, los desafíos y desarrollos del presente milenio han traído un interesante espacio de reflexión y análisis sobre los retos, y las oportunidades que plantea la cuarta Revolución Industrial para la educación y para la formación del talento humano hacia la innovación. Las universidades están en la obligación de actuar para responder a las exigencias del mundo actual. Avanzar y superar la resistencia al cambio y lograr su transformación respondiendo a los señalamientos del Informe Horizon y lineamientos de la UNESCO en la Declaración en Incheon para la Educación 2030. En este artículo se intenta responder a cómo avanza la universidad venezolana con las exigencias del milenio.

Tecnología y enseñanza: retos y nuevas tecnologías y metodologías

This article is presented as a reflection, in which the main events that gave rise to the Information Society (IS) and Knowledge (CS) and how these have transformed different social, economic and productive aspects are exposed, mainly for This writing highlights the influence of technology on teaching and learning processes in educational contexts. In the first part, a tour is made through the evolution of the industry, starting with agrarian society up to Industry 4.0 and digital transformation. In the second part, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are presented, in their role as new scenarios for learning and training, carrying out an analysis of the technologies that have been used, located in the Horizon reports, and Finally, it is concluded by reiterating the benefits of the implementation of technologies, in their function of mediation in didactic and pedagogical environments.

Creating blended learning experiences requires more than digital skills

With growing diversity and larger numbers of enrolled students in classes, online learning can open up new possibilities in New Zealand’s tertiary institutions to improve teaching and enhance students’ learning. Tertiary institutions have reacted with changed expectations about pedagogical approaches and practices, by, for example, integrating more online learning technologies, and by reconsidering the course design and learning environment (Conole, 2016; Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada & Freeman, 2015). Consequently, teachers increasingly teach online as part of a course and need to engage large number of students with a broad range of skills and knowledge, including many who are first in their family to learn formally at tertiary level.
 
 Teachers may work with certain areas of online technologies and digital literacies, for example deposit information online for students to read, but they often do not feel confident to facilitate active learning (Ako & Synapsys, 2018; Boelens, de Wever & Voet, 2017) and to offer tasks that aim to engage students collaboratively online. Kirkwood (2014) points out that teachers question how an online tool can be used but may consider less the rationale for the use of a certain pedagogical strategy for which a tool could be used. Digital literacies are more than gaining isolated technological skills (Johnson et al., 2015) as this presentation will share, based on the findings of a collaboration with two teachers in a first-year undergraduate course in Education. In the presentation, we will discuss recommendations for sustainable teacher development that enable blended learning design with opportunities for students to actively create instead of consuming information and that is likely to enhance their experiences of blended learning. The recommendations include underpinning skills and areas such as supporting learning for Māori and non-Māori students by using online affordances for pedagogical practices to, for example, integrate formative feedback, self-assessment, foster active learning online and independent learning.
 
 References
 
 Ako Aotearoa & Synapsys (2018). Technology in learning: Benchmarking and developing sector capability. Wellington, New Zealand: Ako Aotearoa
 Boelens, R., De Wever, B., & Voet, M. (2017). Four key challenges to the design of blended learning: A systematic literature review. Educational Research Review, 22, 1–18. doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2017.06.001
 Conole, G. (2016). Theoretical underpinnings of learning design. In J. Dalziel (Ed.), Learning design: Conceptualizing a framework for teaching and learning online (pp. 42–62). New York, NY: Routledge.
 Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., & Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon report: 2015 Higher education edition. Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium. Retrieved from https://www.nmc.org/publication/nmc-horizon-report-2015-higher-education-edition/
 Kirkwood, A. (2014). Teaching and learning with technology in higher education: Blended and distance education needs ‘joined-up thinking’ rather than technological determinism. Open Learning, 29(3), 206–221.

Applying a framework to document and analyze the learning design intent with learning analytics in an online course

“ETEC 565A: Understanding Learning Analytics” was a new course offered in a Master of Educational Technology programme in UBC in January 2019. In order to support students exploring learning analytics in a more relevant way to them, the final project allows students to choose their own learning analytics adventure. This presentation will be a showcase and a reflection of learning from our final (group) project. Our group wanted to focus on learning design and learning analytics. There has been a lot of interests in learning analytics in higher education, it has been appearing in the EDUCAUSE’s Horizon report for many years as a technology to adopt. We also know that learning technologies should support the educational goals. Therefore, it is important for us to understand, how would one combine learning design with learning analytics. Our instructor guided to Lockyer, Heathcote and Dawson (2013)’s work. Their article presented “learning design as a form of documentation of pedagogical intent that can provide the context for making sense of diverse sets of analytic data” (p.1439). Lockyer et al (2013) explored using the checkpoint and process analytics as broad categories of learning analytics and how through this documentation of pedagogical intent and the related learning analytics that can be collected, could support pedagogical actions.
 
 Our instructor has given us permission to use our course as an example to apply Lockyer et al (2013)’s framework and conduct our analysis on the course. Our group also had access to some learning analytics data ourselves, through the “Threadz” tool for analysing our discussion forum activities. For all other types of data that we did not have access to, we made comments on what the data could be used for, and if it would provide enough information to assess if the pedagogical intent was met. Comments were also made about potential data that could have been better for informing pedagogical actions but were either not possible to get or too difficult and unpractical.
 
 In the presentation, I will share some backgrounds for the Lockyer et al (2013)’s framework for aligning learning analytics with learning design, how one could use the framework to document their own course design and identify potential learning analytics data sources or the lack of. As the framework provides teachers and designers a tool to think, plan and reflect with. I will discuss some of our group’s findings and reflections from the analysis of our own online course. Then discuss about potentials of using such framework on a more traditional face-to-face course.
 
 As institutions and courses collect more data about their students, it is useful to have a framework to help teachers think about how they might use the learning analytics data to support their students through examining and documenting their pedagogical intents. It is also important to note what the existing data can and cannot do to support pedagogical goals.