Online Educational Institutions Research Articles

Analysis of the Influence of Digital Marketing Strategies in Increasing the Accessibility and Attractiveness of Online Education Programmes: A Business and Information Technology Perspective

The digital age has significantly changed the education paradigm. Online education is becoming increasingly popular as an effective and flexible alternative for individuals who want to improve their skills without being bound by geographical and time constraints. However, the success of online education relies heavily on effective digital marketing strategies to increase its accessibility and appeal. The main objective of this study is to analyse the impact and effectiveness of digital marketing strategies in increasing the accessibility and attractiveness of online education programs, focusing on business and information technology perspectives. The research method used in this study is a literature review with a qualitative approach and descriptive analysis. In this context, the literature review will be conducted with a focus on collecting, reviewing and analysing relevant literature from 1981 to 2024. The study results show that digital marketing strategies have a very important role in increasing the accessibility and attractiveness of online education programmes. In particular, the integration between business aspects and information technology is the key to success in optimising marketing performance and achieving business goals of online education institutions.

Using Neural and Graph Neural Recommender Systems to Overcome Choice Overload: Evidence From a Music Education Platform

The application of recommendation technologies has been crucial in the promotion of physical and digital content across numerous global platforms such as Amazon, Apple, and Netflix. Our study aims to investigate the advantages of employing recommendation technologies on educational platforms, with a particular focus on an educational platform for learning and practicing music. Our research is based on data from Tomplay, a music platform that offers sheet music with professional audio recordings, enabling users to discover and practice music content at varying levels of difficulty. Through our analysis, we emphasize the distinct interaction patterns on educational platforms like Tomplay, which we compare with other commonly used recommendation datasets. We find that interactions are comparatively sparse on educational platforms, with users often focusing on specific content as they learn, rather than interacting with a broader range of material. Therefore, our primary goal is to address the issue of data sparsity. We achieve this through entity resolution principles and propose a neural network (NN)-based recommendation model. Further, we improve this model by utilizing graph neural networks (GNNs), which provide superior predictive accuracy compared to NNs. Notably, our study demonstrates that GNNs are highly effective even for users with little or no historical preferences (cold-start problem). Our cold-start experiments also provide valuable insights into an independent issue, namely, the number of historical interactions needed by a recommendation model to gain a comprehensive understanding of a user. Our findings demonstrate that a platform acquires a solid knowledge of a user’s general preferences and characteristics with 50 past interactions. Overall, our study makes significant contributions to information systems research on business analytics and prescriptive analytics. Moreover, our framework and evaluation results offer implications for various stakeholders, including online educational institutions, education policymakers, and learning platform users.

An empirical research on factors affecting continuous usage of online course – virtual management as the moderator

ABSTRACT With the large number of online courses currently available, learners may have difficulty choosing the appropriate course, so online education institutions have launched a free trial marketing approach. The factors influencing learners’ continuous usage of online courses in the mode of course trial have become a prominent and meaningful topic. Online education platforms have also introduced a series of virtual management services for online learning through online communication media, but their effectiveness has not been fully studied. Based on the updated DeLone and McLean information systems success model (D&M model), this study investigated the impact of the online course content and learning platform on learners’ continuous usage of online courses and the mediating mechanism, as well as explored the moderating role of virtual management. The empirical study (N = 371) showed that online course content matching (demand matching, ability matching) and perceived learning platform characteristics (perceived vividness, perceived ease of use) positively influenced continuous usage through satisfaction, and virtual management had a significant inverted U-shaped moderating effect.

Design of Online Education Information Management System Based on Data Mining Algorithm

Online education is the core field in China now, and many online education institutions have reached thousands or even thousands of teachers. A large amount of information has been gathered in the corresponding personnel management system modules and talent databases of the institution itself, such as personnel student status query management and performance evaluation analysis and management. How to reuse these data to transform existing data management into usable knowledge has become a problem that organizations should not underestimate. The purpose of this paper is to study the theoretical knowledge related to data mining algorithms, put forward the process and classification of data mining, and focus on the mining process and common methods of data classification rules. Experimental data shows that 31% of parents chose online education in 2019, compared with only 14% in 2017. Among them, the natural lack of offline education resources in third- and fourth-tier cities online education makes up for the lack of offline resources. The results show that third- and fourth-tier cities will become the driving force for the development of online education in the future.

The new face of alternative assessment in accounting sciences - technology as an anthropomorphic stakeholder

Worldwide, more and more higher education institutions are making use of online or distance education, due to the increasing demand for tertiary education. In this article, the problem addressed relates to the importance of technology as a stakeholder in alternative assessments for undergraduate accounting sciences modules in an online, non-venue-based, technology-enhanced environment. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how technology, due to its importance and impact, acts similarly as a human stakeholder and should be treated as an anthropomorphic stakeholder in an online technology-enhanced environment, considering its powerful role. A qualitative approach was followed, and action research was used to develop a conceptual framework. This conceptual framework demonstrates how stakeholder theory could ensure the legitimacy of qualifications through identity verification of students in an online environment through improved performance and innovation potential. These findings contribute to the body of knowledge and due to its importance, technology could be considered as an anthropomorphic stakeholder in the creation, improvement, or restructuring of assessments at online educational institutions.

Research on the Marketing Strategy of Online Education -- Taking New Oriental as an Example

In recent years, with the development of society and the progress of science and technology, online learning has penetrated into people's daily life, and people's demand for high-quality curriculum products is more and more strong. From a macro perspective, the continuous growth of national financial investment in education, the continuous upgrading of China's consumption structure, the development of 5G technology and the popularization of AI intelligence make online teaching less limited. The online education industry is showing an explosive growth trend. More and more online education institutions are listed for financing, and the market value is soaring. However, in 2019, except for GSX, the latest online learning platforms such as New Oriental, Speak English Fluently and Sunlands, have been in a state of loss. Most of these agencies seize the market by increasing advertising investment, but at the same time, they also bring huge marketing costs, which affect the financial performance of the company. With the enhancement of Matthew effect, large-scale educational institutions occupy a large market through free classes and low-price classes, while small and medium-sized institutions with weak capital strength are often unable to afford high sales costs, facing the risk of capital chain rupture. Taking new Oriental online as an example, this paper analyzes the problems existing in the marketing strategies of online education institutions. It also puts forward suggestions on four aspects, which are target market, differentiated value, marketing mix and marketing mode, so as to make sure that online education institutions can control marketing expenses and achieve profits by improving course quality, expanding marketing channels and implementing precise positioning.

English as Medium of Instruction Implementation for Communication and Sustainability in 4.0 Era

Globalization spreads fast around the world put English language become a-must-have skill. Almost all people use English in the teaching learning process, communication, transferring soft skills and hard skills, showing social status in communities, business transactions, political purposes, even on the some medicine instruction, food ingredients, mechanic usage instruction, and many more. The language is used to various purposes, as for online and offline communication. During this corona virus pandemic, English as a Medium of Instruction is implemented mostly in online educational institutions. English as Medium of Instruction is also applied to any subjects in universities in non-English speaking countries. This research focuses on the implementation of English as Medium of Instruction for communication and sustainability in 4.0 era for non-English lecturers in a private university in Indonesia. The survey questionnaires used online link was randomly sent to 53 lecturers as informants. The aim of using online link to support data gathering is to ensure all information required can be collected on time, faster and efficiently. The data was quantitatively presented and qualitatively analyzed. The data collected were information on how essential English related to English of Medium of Instruction implementation for communication & sustainability in 4.0 era, including the challenges faced by non-English lecturers in fully English as Medium of Instruction classrooms. The findings of this research provide updated information regarding the learning needs and the effective teaching-learning method in implementing EMI for communication and sustainability in 4.0 era.

Assessing the Need for and Constraints to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Integration in the Teaching and Learning of Tourism at Higher Education Institutions in Kenya

The aim of the current paper is to provide an extensive review of the theoretical and empirical literature that justifies the need for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the teaching and learning of tourism in the Kenyan institutions of higher learning. Further, a review of existing constraints is also explained using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which has proved to be a suitable theoretical model in helping to explain and predict user behaviour of information technology and subsequently proposes the way forward towards enhanced integration. This study examines literature review that reveals the different points of view in relation to the integration of ICT in teaching and learning in tourism higher education institutions in Kenya. Specifically this paper sought to establish the various ICT resources applicable in tourism education, determine the benefits of integrating ICT in tourism education and lastly establish the external factors and user based factors that influence or constrain acceptance of ICT in tourism education in higher institutions and recommend the way forward.
 The findings from the literature reviewed indicates that, the use of ICTs transforms the teaching and learning experience by changing the manner in which the tourism and hospitality skills and knowledge is acquired. However, the need for more appropriate modes of delivery to make the tourism education programmes more convenient for the modern student is quite crucial. Findings further showed that students are willing to adapt and use ICTs for learning but there are numerous barriers that are either user or institutional based. It was established that institutions are slow to implement their use while lecturers are slow to adapt to their use. Other barriers to the integration of instructional technology into higher education that were identified included poor technology infrastructure, lack of proper institutional policies on ICT use and minimal low computer use competency. Further, many higher online educational institutions had failed due to the high cost of technology, poor decisions, competition, and the absence of a business strategy. Consequently, many universities that provide e-learning face enormous difficulty in achieving successful strategies, including the delivery, effectiveness, and acceptance of the courses. To effectively utilise ICT in tourism teaching and learning in Higher Education Institutions (IHEIs) will require proper network infrastructures, increased computer to student ratios, good Internet connectivity speeds with high availability as well as technical support for the users. There is also a need for a change in the tourism curriculum to integrate the use of ICTs in teaching and learning while at the same time, enhance policies that recognise and award those who use of ICTs for teaching.

Learning Analytics: Online Higher Education in Management

Learning analytics are a set of methods and techniques that collect, process, inform and successfully produce machine-readable data continuously to analyze the educational process and enable improvement decisions. The research aim is to develop and verify an instrument, based on theoretical contributions accepted by the international community that can evaluate the quality of online higher education in management based on Learning Analytics methods. The online teaching-learning model in management proposed that students' actions focused on an educational activity should be in the central position. This online teaching-learning model in management has been proposed according to five components: institution management, technological presence, instructional design, intra-psychological component and an inter-psychological or social component. Building upon the Teaching and Learning in Online Education Institutions in Management Model, an instrument has been created and provided that includes the dimensions, categories and variables of each component. Analyzing these components, we see that the dimensions, categories and variables for each are adequate to support the analysis of online higher education institutions in management.

Everyone already has their community beyond the screen

Under a prominent recent regime of online education, often represented in the scholarship as a “social constructive learning paradigm”, learning is defined as a social practice that involves a group of students actively participating in collaborative knowledge construction processes. Pedagogical theories and strategies developed and utilised in that regime focus extensively on enabling student-to-student interaction and building communities of learners in online learning environments. In this context, where the notions of “collaborative” learning and learning “community” have gained substantial legitimacy from relevant theoretical traditions, other beliefs about meaningful learning are likely to be harshly criticised or, at best, simply neglected. However, it is not at all difficult to notice a gap between the accepted theoretical ideas of effective online learning and actual pedagogical practices in most online education institutions. Here, I aim to reduce that theory-practice gap by reconceptualising online learning using a double-layered Community of Practice (CoP) model. That module conceptualises online learning as interlinked processes of participation and socialisation in multiple communities across internal and external or online and offline “layers” of learners’ lives. The model helps online course designers and instructors to expand the boundaries of their course environments or designs to reach out to students’ personal and professional lives and to make sense of online learning experiences that are shaped by their interactions with other members of different communities outside the course environments. Using data, three students’ narratives, collected from a series of case studies on learners’ learning experiences in three different types of online courses (or programmes), this article effectively demonstrates how difficult it is to develop a strong CoP nested and sustained within online learning environments, which usually have a close finish. The article further argues that it may be useful for instructional designers to expend their view on learning environment to include distance learners’ life situations beyond their computer screens. Everyone has their own community in which they naturally learn, develop, and live with other members outside the courses. Thus, rather than putting so much effort to form a community inside our learning environment, we may want to think about more effectively support our students to form a stronger and more sustainable community in their lives through being engaged in learning activities in our course.

Predicting Dropout from Online Education based on Neural Networks

While online education keeps expanding, web-based institutions face high dropout rate, pushing costs up and making a negative social impact. Based on the analysis of existing research, personal characteristics and learning behavior were selected as input variables to train a dropout prediction model using neural network algorithm. The outcomes of pre- diction model were analyzed by calculating the rates of accuracy, precision, and precision. The results suggest this method is effective in identifying potential dropouts, and can help the online education institutions prevent dropout. As China pushes harder on its industrial transformation and reconstruction, the society has an increasingly high de- mand on the quality of employees. Receiving further educa- tion has become an important way for people to improve their knowledge structure. Online education has been well received for its openness and flexibility among students who are also in the workforce. According to a statistic report on China's higher education, 1.96 million college and universi- ties students were admitted into 68 web-based colleges (in- cluding radio and television universities) around the nation in 2012 (1), taking up 45% of the total number of admitted students into higher educational institutions that year. About 55.7% of people are willing to receive online vocational training, according to statistics from social research institu- tions. Several large enterprises in China have web-based colleges for staff training. Online learning market has become mature, but the prob- lem of high dropout rate is a severe challenge that web-based educational institutions face. Student dropout rate for web- based curricula education in China is generally about 20%, much higher than that of traditional classroom education, according to statistics (2). A high dropout rate is not only a waste of education resources but also a loss for personal education investment. What is more, it leads to a decline in social recognition of e-learning, which is an impediment to the development of web-based education (3). How to effec- tively bring down dropout rate has been an urgent problem of e-learning and attracted massive attention from web-based educational institutions. rate, major of study, etc (4-6). Based on empirical analyses, scholars have explained the factors influencing student drop- out of e-learning through many models they proposed, and have been trying to reduce the dropout rate by avoiding negative factors and improving positive ones in a macro- scope (7). However, as there are huge individual differences among students, a macroscopic strategy is often untargeted and ineffective. A feasible measure to reduce dropout rate is to identify the groups of students to quitting so that targeted measures can be taken before attrition happens. This article adopts data mining technology and predicts student dropout based on related attribute data in the learning management system so as to reduce dropout rates in online education.

Mandatory Online Orientation Courses for Online Learners

An examination of mandatory online orientation Courses for Online Learners. A sample of online students participated in an online survey on online educational institutions offering mandatory online orientation courses. Chi-Square was used to analyze the survey responses. The findings are important for online educational institutions and online students. Online students reported that a mandatory online orientation course is helpful. These findings should be considered when developing a policy on mandatory online orientation courses.

Enterprise Systems Education through Supply Chain Management

ABSTRACT The U.S. and other developed nations are experiencing competitiveness in offering higher educational degree programs. Due to the rise of more private and online educational institutions, existing traditional class room teaching institutions are facing the impact of intensifying competition in recruitment and graduation. This created the so-called “Enterprise Systems Education” at large. Many strategies are designed and developed internally to attain competitiveness. One should consider adopting the systems concept of close collaboration and integration efforts with the industries which the commercial enterprises have deployed successfully for decades to attain competitiveness. This paper describes the use of Supply Chain Management (SCM) principles as an effective strategy to attain competitiveness for these so-called “Enterprise Systems Education” institutions. Keywords: Supply Chain Management Competitiveness Enterprise Systems

Academics Telecommuting in Open and Distance Education Universities: Issues, challenges and opportunities

Research in distance and online education has focused on how to improve students: learning and support services. Faculty satisfaction, as one of the five pillars in Sloan-Consortium's quality framework for online education, has received less attention in research. Besides online teaching, little research has examined the experiences of academics working in institutions where the faculty is dispersed geographically. Outside the academy, teleworking or telecommuting has become quite popular in recent years. Most research to-date has been conducted in information technology-related corporations and government departments, but hardly any in post-secondary educational institutions. Drawing on a literature review of research in telecommuting or teleworking, this paper discusses the potential benefits and drawbacks of telecommuting for academics and their families, and the potential opportunities for -- and challenges faced -- by their distance and online education institutions.