Online Learning Courses Research Articles

Impacts of course activities on student perceptions of engagement and learning online

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to examine the impacts of course activities on student perceptions of engagement and learning in online courses. Using eight interactive course activities as indicators of course interactivity, we conducted a latent profile analysis to cluster students into different groups. Based on students’ perceptions, we observed three distinct groups of instructional contexts: (a) courses with low student-student but high student-instructor interactions (Low S-S but High S-I Interactions; 25.3%), (b) courses that mainly utilize group discussions (Group Discussion Focused; 20.2%), and (c) courses with high student-student and high student-instructor interactions (High S-S and S-I Interactions; 54.4%). Students’ perceptions of engagement and learning outcomes varied across groups. Notably, students in the highly interactive courses (High S-S and S-I Interactions) reported the most favorable perceptions of engagement and learning outcomes, compared to students in the other two groups. Implications for instruction professionals and future research directions are discussed.

Applying Process Mining to Analyze the Behavior of Learners in Online Courses

The most critical challenge in analyzing the data of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) using process mining techniques is storing event logs in appropriate formats. In this study, an innovative approach for extraction of MOOC data is described. Thereafter, several process-discovery techniques, i.e., Dotted Chart Analysis, Fuzzy Miner, and Social Network Miner, are applied to the extracted MOOC data. In addition, behavioral studies of high- and low-performance students taking online courses are conducted. These studies considered i) overall behavioral statistics, ii) identification of bottlenecks and loopback behavior through frequency- and time-performance-based approaches, and iii) working together relationships. The results indicated that there are significant behavioral differences between the two groups. We expect that the results of this study will help educators understand students’ behavioral patterns and better organize online course content.

Exploration of data mining algorithms of an online learning behaviour log based on cloud computing

In this research, the learning patterns and behavioural data of learners' online learning in a cloud computing environment are analysed, and the learners' learning progress, learning rules, and learning effects through data mining algorithms are studied to promote learners' self-learning consciousness and self-learning ability and achieve the learner-centred application goal. This study is aimed at an online learning course, randomly selected eight learners as research subjects, and analysed their online learning behaviour through data mining algorithms, including establishing learning behaviour models, behavioural data feature analysis and behaviour evaluation, and finally realise personalised recommendation of learning content based on data mining results. It finds that through the data mining algorithm to analyse the learning behaviour of online learners, the learner's learning state and learning effect can be intuitively understood, and the individual's learning behaviour characteristics can be roughly defined, then guiding suggestions can be given to help them complete learning goals and improve learning efficiency. Due to the small sample size of the survey, the results obtained are relatively one-sided. In future research, attention should be paid to the data collection and collation work.

A Near-Peer Educational Model for Online, Interactive Learning in Emergency Medicine.

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic led to a large disruption in the clinical education of medical students, particularly in-person clinical activities. To address the resulting challenges faced by students interested in emergency medicine (EM), we proposed and held a peer-led, online learning course for rising fourth-year medical students.MethodsA total of 61 medical students participated in an eight-lecture EM course. Students were evaluated through pre- and post-course assessments designed to ascertain perceived comfort with learning objectives and overall course feedback. Pre- and post-lecture assignments were also used to increase student learning.ResultsMean confidence improved in every learning objective after the course. Favored participation methods were three-person call-outs, polling, and using the “chat” function. Resident participation was valued for “real-life” examples and clinical pearls.ConclusionThis interactive model for online EM education can be an effective format for dissemination when in-person education may not be available.

Towards decolonising research methods training: the development of a locally responsive online learning course on research methods for mental health in war and conflict for researchers and practitioners in the Gaza Strip.

Concerns exist that online learning directed at non-Western settings to strengthen research capacity imposes Western-centric epistemology, provides unidirectional transfer of knowledge, and neglects local paradigms and expertise. We argue that a plurality of voices, histories and epistemologies are essential to strengthen research capacity. We share our experience developing and teaching an online course for mental health professionals and researchers in the Gaza Strip. Birzeit University and King's College London developed and delivered the course equally, focusing on the intersection between qualitative research methods, mental health and conflict, and addressing local research needs. We incorporated local case studies and expertise, encouraged interaction in English and Arabic, and stimulated critique of Western theories. Seventeen participated, 12 completed the pre-course questionnaire, 15 completed the post-course questionnaire and four undertook semi-structured interviews. Our pre-course survey showed participants most needed coding and qualitative data analysis skills. Post-course findings showed improved qualitative research skills. Most agreed the course was comprehensive and well delivered, with relevant case studies. Three themes were identified: (1) the course was locally contextualised and met students' needs; (2) the course fostered dialogic and multi-directional learning and (3) suggestions for improvements. Several participants wanted some topics in greater depth and further specialised training. A few suggested the course be in Arabic. Fostering multi-directional learning is key for non-Western knowledge, epistemologies, and languages to gain prominence in Western academia. A social transformation would see local researchers and educators engage with and use local methods and paradigms in mental health in war and conflict.

Automatic Student Engagement in Online Learning Environment Based on Neural Turing Machine

With the continuous and rapid growth of online courses, online learners’ engagement recognition has become a novel research topic in the field of computer vision and pattern recognition. While a few attempts to automatic engagement recognition has been studied in the literature, learning a robust engagement measure is still a challenging task. To address it, we propose a new automatic engagement recognition method based on Neural Turing Machine in this paper. In particular, we firstly extract student’s eye gaze features, facial action unit features, head pose features, and body pose features respectively, then combine these multi modal features into the final feature of our recognition task. Moreover, we propose the engagement recognition framework based on the idea of Neural Turing Machine to learn the weight of each short video feature. In consequence, the feature fused by different weights will be applied to identify the students’ engagement in learning online courses. Empirically, we show improved performance over state of the art methods to automatic engagement recognition on DAiSEE dataset.

University Students’ Perception of Video-Based Learning in Times of COVID-19: A TAM/TTF Perspective

ABSTRACT Physical closure of educational institutes worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the emergence of a new era of video-based learning. The current circumstances are unique that have forced students to use digital technologies for their learning purpose. However, the successful usage of such a system relies on the understanding of the adoption factors, for which an integrated model is proposed based on the Technology Acceptance Model and the Task Technology Fit Model. Additionally, this work considers the moderating effects of gender and digital inequality. Data are collected from 232 students all of whom have taken part in a full-semester video-based online learning course in times of the pandemic. A Partial Least Squares method is used for analyzing the data. Results show that video-based learning positively fits into the student’s perception and their actual use of the system. The effect of individual characteristics is more than the technology characteristics on the task-technology-fit chain. The integrated model can predict 64.6% of the variance in the final dependent variable: actual usage of video-based learning. Further, while the moderating effect of gender is found to be significant, that for digital inequality is non-significant. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Academic support under COVID-19 lockdown: what students think of online support e-tools in an ODeL course

PurposeThis paper aims to explore student teachers’ views related to the online academic support e-tools used under the COVID-19 lockdown.Design/methodology/approachMapping a pragmatic research approach, an explanatory mixed methods design was used for the study.FindingsEmpirical evidence revealed that student teachers were satisfied and experienced the academic support tools as being positively applied to their online learning. Furthermore, it is reported that student teachers preferred the discussion forum as the most appropriate academic support e-tool in the course under coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.Research limitations/implicationsThis exploratory pragmatic study extends the knowledge of the online academic support e-tools for an open distance e-learning (ODeL) context that was used under COVID-19 lockdown. This study provides additional evidence concerning a revised academic support frame for an ODeL online learning context. Research limitations: small sample size was used, and therefore caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to a similar context. The current study has only examined a teacher education course and could not be generalised to similar conditions as those under COVID-19 lockdown. This exploratory research has raised many questions that require further investigation. More research is required to determine the efficacy of the academic support e-tools with regard to student learning in other online courses and contexts.Practical implicationsThe student teachers that participated in this study were empowered to using the academic support e-tools to support them under COVID-19 lockdown. The discussion was mostly preferred academic supportive e-tool as an engaged, participatory and communicative platform for accelerated learning in the teaching methodology of economics course.Originality/valueA noteworthy contribution was made in the design and testing of the reliability of methodological tools, which could be replicated in blended and ODeL contexts.

A Conceptual Framework and Evaluation Tool for Mobile Learning Experiences

There is an identified need in the research literature for the design, implementation, and evaluation of a conceptual framework for creating contextual, interactive mobile learning. This article details how the conceptual framework was implemented and tested in an online learning course for physicians, nurses, and healthcare professionals at medical organizations across Ontario. The conceptual framework and evaluation instruments were revised based on identified best practices and feedback from study participants. This provided a practical, evidence-based tool for informing the effective design of mobile learning. Results indicated that the design of the framework to include context-specific content, guided participation delivery, flexible and intuitive usability, formal online and informal mobile structure, and access to communities of practice all resulted in practical, applicable learning outcomes and a high degree of learner satisfaction.

Virtually Authentic: Graduate Students’ Perspective Changes toward Authentic Learning while Collaborating in a Virtual World

This qualitative case study investigates graduate students’ perspective changes apropos their cross-national collaborative learning experience while participating in an online teaching and learning course jointly taught by graduate schools in the United States and Israel. The participants met virtually, on a weekly basis between November and December 2018, on a platform called Second Life, to design and participate in collaborative learning activities. On completion of the course, interviews were conducted with a small sample of student-participants regarding their experiences. During the design phase, participants’ dominant perceptions of their learning experiences were characterized by genuine “excitement” at the novelty of collaborating virtually with colleagues on the other side of the world. Their initial perceptions evolved during the participation phase to realization as learning communities emerged and students’ roles expanded beyond the scope of mere participants. In this study, the authors argue that participants’ construction of new knowledge resulted in authentic learning from the standpoints of social constructivism and online collaborative learning theory and further discuss the factors that enabled the participants’ authentic learning experience.

Implementation of MOOCs based eLearning Systems for Training and Capacity Building of Extension Functionaries – Experience at MANAGE

The traditional class room learning has been limited to the extent of knowledge transfer within a small group in a closed area. The innovations in technologies and tools available today and the concept of eLearning in the form of MOOCs (Massive open online course) have extended the reach of learning beyond the class room to the entire world. MANAGE is a national level training institute, which aims at capacity building of officers working in the departments of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries and also scientists working in SAUs, KVKs and ICAR institutions on various themes related to agricultural extension. Extension MOOCs is an initiative of MANAGE to expand the reach of class room learning to online eLearning courses. MANAGE has launched the Post Graduate Diploma in Agricultural Extension Management (PGDAEM MOOCs), Certified Farm Advisor (CFA MOOCs) and Certified Livestock Advisor (CLA MOOCs) on MOOCs platform. In this paper, the author attempts to focus on the implementation of MANAGE Extension MOOCs programs – PGDAEM MOOCs and CFA& CLA MOOCs using two different software platforms and how these are beneficial to the learning community. The paper also compares the progress of the two MOOCs programs as an internal study of MANAGE for further initiating the MOOCs for Extension personnel in the Country.

The Effect of Synchronous Discussion Sessions in an Asynchronous Course.

Online learning is extremely prevalent in education, more than ever given the COVID-19 pandemic that has shifted most educational services to an online platform. More specifically, in 2015, close to six million students were taking at least one online learning course, which was 29.7% of all postsecondary students (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics 2018). In 2017, the Online Learning Consortium reported an almost 4% increase in online learning students in 2015 as compared to the previous two years. Although online learning is becoming more prevalent, there has been little to no research to determine what makes online learning most effective. Those that have, either have not compared modalities (i.e., only testing one format) (Sella et al. 2014; Walker and Rehfeldt 2012) or have focused on another aspect of the learning (e.g., does grading anonymously affect performance) (Liu et al. 2018). Determining the components of online learning that lead to better student outcomes will add to the current literature and improve online learning as a whole. The primary purpose of this experiment was to determine what forms of discussion (synchronous vs asynchronous) are most effective in an asynchronous online master-level applied behavior analysis course.

Modelling Teacher Practices to Apply Learning Analytics as a Metacognitive Tool in Learning to Enhance Student Success

In the contemporary context, adoption of educational technologies has become inevitable. In virtual learning environments, teachers are not only exploring new ways of teaching, e.g. blended or online, but also incorporating various tools and strategies in order to facilitate the learning/teaching process. Learning analytics has received a lot of attention as it offers a support to teachers in monitoring students’ performance and making decisions regarding pedagogical approaches and techniques that would enhance learning and fulfil students’ realtime needs. In this research, a case study of university online or blended learning courses investigates the usage of learning analytics as a metacognitive tool to analyse how teaching and learning as well as learning design may be improved in order to enhance student success.

Examining the use of prompts to facilitate self-regulated learning in Massive Open Online Courses

The limited instructional support in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) inherently demands learners to self-regulate their learning. MOOC research shows that learners are more successful when they engage in self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors such as planning what to study and reviewing study materials. However, many learners struggle with SRL. In this study, we examined the effect of two types of SRL prompts (i.e., questions or a combination of questions and recommendations) on SRL activities, course engagement, and performance in MOOCs. Learners either received questions supporting SRL, questions supporting SRL followed by recommendations, or neither questions supporting SRL nor recommendations. Log data was used to examine learners’ behavior in the MOOCs. Results showed the SRL prompts, in general, are effective in enhancing SRL-related activities and course engagement. However, the effectiveness of the SRL prompts may be influenced by the complexity of the MOOCs. The current study adds to the field of SRL by examining prompting as an approach to enhance SRL in MOOCs.

What is the Difference between Online Learning and Traditional Teaching in Medical Education?

The online learning, which is now widely implemented owing to the constraints imposed by COVID-19 pandemic, offers many advantages when compared to the traditional teaching. The online teaching course is available to student any time and can be accessed from any location, providing there is a connection to the Internet, which allows remote learning at home using a fl exible and convenient study schedule that does not disturb other daily activities. The online course contains more informative learning materials, because the multimedia software enables to combine a variety of diverse elements within a given teaching unit, such as texts, PowerPoint presentations, computer animations, video clips, and audio fi les. The amount of time needed to go through the topics of the online course can be variable for different students, depending on their basic knowledge and motivation for learning, thus supporting more personalized learning experience. In contrast to the traditional teaching, that applies a teacher-centered approach, with online teaching the students become independent learners taking the main responsibility for the knowledge acquisition. Therefore, the students’ ability to succeed with online learning is critically determined by the self-discipline, rational time management skills, and monitoring the individual progress. While traditional teaching is largely based on passive learning through memorization of information by student, the online course offers multiple opportunities for self-directed, active learning, including questions for self-assessment, the web links to the relevant learning resources, and the interaction with peers using text messengers, discussion forums and web chats. The weak points of the online learning approach are that the self-studies are easy to procrastinate when the student is not strongly motivated to learn, and that it limits social contacts, leading to the feeling of isolation. Importantly, when developing the online learning course, the computer technology is supposed to be just a technical instrument, whereas the main emphasis is placed on the quality of teaching materials and their relevance to the objectives of the medical curriculum.

Research on the Teaching Mode Reform of Online Learning Course Based on Flipped Classroom under the Computer Technology

With the innovation and progress of the international education community, the renewal of teaching mode has become an inevitable trend for the improvement of education level in China. In recent years, the development of educational information technology has enriched teaching resources and learning approaches. Flipped classroom is an innovative point of educational reform. Today’s students can search a lot of teaching resources and knowledge through the wide network channel of computer. Teachers can use the convenience of the network to understand students with learning difficulties. Teachers can also effectively guide students to study and explore courses online. However, the new teaching mode of flipped classroom also provides a huge challenge to the traditional classroom teaching.

Improving adherence to guideline recommendations in dementia care through establishing a quality improvement collaborative of agents of change: an interrupted time series study

BackgroundNon-pharmacological interventions including physical activity programmes, occupational therapy and caregiver education programmes have been shown to lead to better outcomes for people with dementia and their care partners. Yet, there are gaps between what is recommended in guidelines and what happens in practice. The aim of this study was to bring together clinicians working in dementia care and establish a quality improvement collaborative. The aim of the quality improvement collaborative was to increase self-reported guideline adherence to three guideline recommendations.MethodsInterrupted time series. We recruited health professionals from community, hospital and aged care settings across Australia to join the collaborative. Members of the collaborative participated in a start-up meeting, completed an online learning course with clinical and quality improvement content, formed a quality improvement plan which was reviewed by a team of experts, received feedback following an audit of their current practice and were able to share experiences with their peers. The primary outcome was self-reported adherence to their guideline recommendation of interest which was measured using checklists. Data were collected monthly over a period of 18 months, and the study used an interrupted time series design and multilevel Poisson regression analysis to evaluate changes in self-reported adherence.ResultsA total of 45 health professionals (78% therapists) from different sites joined the collaborative and 28 completed all requirements. Data from 1717 checklists were included in the analyses. Over the duration of the project, there was a significant increase in clinician self-reported adherence to guideline recommendations with a 42.1% immediate increase in adherence (incidence rate ratio = 1.42; 95% confidence interval = 1.08–1.87; p = 0.012).ConclusionHealth professionals working with people with dementia are interested in and willing to join a quality improvement collaborative with the goal of improving non-pharmacological aspects of care. Participation in the collaborative improved the quality of care for people with dementia as measured through self-reported adherence to guideline recommendations. Although there are challenges in implementation of guideline recommendations within dementia care, the quality improvement collaborative method was considered successful. A strength was that it equipped and empowered clinicians to lead improvement activities and allowed for heterogeneity in terms of service and setting.Trial registrationACTRN12618000268246

Optimizing collaborative learning in online courses.

SUMMARYCurrently, higher education institutes are urged to adapt their education programmes rapidly to online courses. This toolbox article provides recommendations for optimising collaborative learning in online courses from the perspective of course design, and the roles of teachers and students, all illustrated in our example. With regards to course design, it is recommended to construct learning tasks for which students need to collaborate to reach a shared goal, use collaboration scripts to structure activities and communication, manage expectations about collaboration, provide room for discussion about the team process, facilitate autonomy and use existing communication tools. The presence of teachers online is essential, to provide feedback on the content and to guide team processes. Finally, students are recommended to get to know fellow students, to create a positive atmosphere and to reflect on the collaboration. We conclude that online collaborative learning can work well, but requires a balance between course structure and autonomy, and needs active monitoring during implementation. If this is done, it is perfectly possible to engage students and teachers, to support deep learning and to develop collaboration skills.

Evaluation of an online learning package developed to support the COVID-19 response of nurses working in Regional and Atoll Hospitals in the Maldives

In the global crisis of COVID-19 pandemic and the unparalleled health emergency, nurses are the largest healthcare professional group providing frontline care in hospitals as well as other areas such as quarantine and isolation facilities. Additionally, due to the nurses’ vital role in the care and management of the COVID-19 patients it is important that lifesaving information is delivered to them as well as other health professionals. Hence, School of Nursing (SN), Maldives National University (MNU) developed a short online learning course on nursing care of COVID-19 patients as per the request of the Ministry of Health (MoH), Maldives. The aim of the research was to evaluate the online learning package developed in the Maldivian context for nurses with little or no previous knowledge and skills in the care of COVID-19 patients. A cross sectional online questionnaire survey was used to collect data and an exploratory analysis was conducted. The quantitative findings showed that majority of nurses found the learning package more than satisfactory in each aspect evaluated. The overall consensus of the qualitative findings were the participants found learning online very helpful and informative. Therefore, the findings of this study can be considered as a useful baseline for developing short term online courses to address learning needs in emergency situations such as pandemics.

Curriculum Development Based on Online and Face-to-Face Learning in a Saudi Arabian University

This research examined curriculum development in an academic program with respect to graduate education-level methods of teaching. Numerous studies have suggested that educational curricula should be redeveloped based on Web 2.0 technologies. The purpose of this research is to analyze student perspectives regarding curriculum development based on their online and face-to-face learning experiences in a Saudi Arabian university. This research surveyed 95 graduate students in a Saudi university to examine their perceptions of curriculum development based on online and face-to-face learning. The research objective was to determine students’ opinions regarding the performance and challenges of the developed curriculum. The research design in this study was based on a qualitative analysis study of an online survey. The survey data were analyzed and showed a consensus in favor of online learning courses. The results show that online students highlighted the flexibility, accessibility, and balance of time management in their personal and professional life during the course yet the face-to-face students emphasized that their main reason for enrolling in face-to-face classes involved having better class interaction with peers and faculties.