New Trends In Learning Research Articles

Perspectives of ESL Learners on the Integration of Technology in English Language Learning Process: An Evidence-Based Research

Technology is a part and parcel of this information age; no sphere of learning is untouched by it. The field of ELT/EFL/ESL is no exception. The current paper is an attempt to understand how the use of technology has been received in the field of English as a second language and gather perspectives from the learners of the English language about the effect of technology in their learning. The paper explores various modes of e-learning and how the tools aid traditional ways of teaching and learning English as a second language. An attempt has been made to trace new trends in learning with the ever-evolving technology in the 21st century. This paper has reviewed a few significant researches to give a perspective on the efficacy of modern technologies in learning English for ESL students.

A Review of Gamification Impact on Student Behavioural and Learning Outcomes

<p class="0abstract"><span lang="EN-US">Gamification has become a new trend in learning in the 21st century, by utilizing technology with game elements to change behavior and support learning outcomes. However, few researchers have focused on the comprehensive impact of gamification in helping researchers to better understand developments over the past few years. The ScienceDirect, Taylor and Francis, Springer, Wiley, and SAGE publisher databases were surveyed and a total of forty articles from 2016-2021, were selected for review. </span><span lang="EN-US">Data analysis using NVivo 12 Plush software, with Hierarchy Chart and Mind Map methods. The main findings indicate the positive impact of gamification on student behavior and learning outcomes, including affective, cognitive, behavioral, and performance or others. The researcher recommends the continuity of gamification on learning outcomes and behavior, that interface design and teacher cognitive abilities are strategies or successful learning.</span></p>

Students’ Acceptance of Simulation Games in Management Courses: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

As a new trend in learning, simulation games play an active and essential role in the area of educational technology. Gaming makes a positive impact on the learning process. It has the capability to enhance creativity, problem-solving, communication, decision-making, and collaboration (Faizan et al., 2015). This paper is aimed at exploring the factors that affect students’ acceptance and use of simulation games in management courses. In this study, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is utilized to investigate students’ intentions regarding using simulation games for learning. The proposed model and its hypotheses are tested by surveying 115 students at Yanbu University College in Saudi Arabia. Data are gathered and analyzed using smart partial least square. After analysis, the results prove that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence have positive effects on behavioral intentions (BI) and that facilitating conditions have a positive impact on use behavior (UB). In addition, a positive effect is found between BI and UB. The authors utilize the study findings to highlight some recommendations that could improve the implementation of simulation games. Finally, future studies are recommended to increase the sample size for more reliable results and conclusions.

New Trends in Learning about Disaster Prevention: Some Lessons from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

Lying on one of the world’s most seismologically active areas, Japan has been affected by frequent natural disasters. In fact, many lessons have been learned after each occurrence of a horrible event from the ancient times up to the present, which have been implemented in order to avoid and/or reduce the degree to which the country is affected by such disasters. Yet, until the recent years, these lessons tended to be diffused within local communities only and thus remained within a narrow and closed society. However, the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, one of the most serious catastrophes of the last 1000 years, has gradually been changing this tendency and has prompted a wide variety of new learning styles. One of the most conspicuous features of this is the enhancement of mutual learning at various levels and through different methods between those who were the most seriously affected and those who, no matter how near or far from the affected area they live, are worried about future disasters of this kind which have been predicted. Thus the recent disaster has had positive impacts on learning about disaster prevention among the nationwide population, generating a variety of new approaches. This paper intends to illustrate some good examples of new trends in learning about disaster prevention and indicate how the nation has been transferring the experience of catastrophes into effective learning.

A general approximation framework for direct optimization of information retrieval measures

Recently direct optimization of information retrieval (IR) measures has become a new trend in learning to rank. In this paper, we propose a general framework for direct optimization of IR measures, which enjoys several theoretical advantages. The general framework, which can be used to optimize most IR measures, addresses the task by approximating the IR measures and optimizing the approximated surrogate functions. Theoretical analysis shows that a high approximation accuracy can be achieved by the framework. We take average precision (AP) and normalized discounted cumulated gains (NDCG) as examples to demonstrate how to realize the proposed framework. Experiments on benchmark datasets show that the algorithms deduced from our framework are very effective when compared to existing methods. The empirical results also agree well with the theoretical results obtained in the paper.