Online Educational Technology Research Articles

TPACK leveraged: A redesigned online educational technology course for STEM preservice teachers

Integration of computational thinking and programming into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes is needed to promote students’ learning of twenty-first century skills. Yet, teachers are not equipped to achieve this integration successfully as teacher education curricula do not generally align with this need. With the Covid-19 outbreak, curricula also need to be adapted for online environments. This qualitative study presents the redesign of an educational technology course that introduces programming and computational thinking to STEM preservice teachers for online settings, and explores learning experiences of preservice teachers, in terms of how they combine technological knowledge with pedagogy and content. Data were collected from course artifacts, such as reading responses, coding challenges, and lesson designs and implementations. The findings showed the online course design was helpful in enhancing preservice STEM teachers’ pedagogical approaches of how to teach computational thinking and programming. Offering hands-on coding practices in the course allowed preservice teachers to improve their technological knowledge (programming), and they were able to integrate their technological pedagogical knowledge into their content area and design meaningful lessons. The study offers implications for design of online teacher education courses that promote preservice teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge for computational thinking and programming. Implications for practice or policy: The online course design implemented in this study can be adjusted into different contexts, considering that fully-online or blended teacher education courses will still be needed in the future. The design guidelines used in this study can be utilised to develop online teacher education modules for educational technology topics other than programming. The question prompts given to preservice teachers in the study can be refined to trigger deeper reflection on pedagogy of computing education.

Toward more effective and equitable learning: Identifying barriers and solutions for the future of online education.

The increased reliance on online education and educational technologies more generally has laid bare the need to more deeply consider how researchers, designers, and educators can improve the quality of technology-mediated learning. To address this need, more than two dozen experts from a variety of fields came together to discuss the challenges that educational technology must address in the immediate future. These experts were tasked with identifying barriers to and potential solutions for delivering high-quality and equitable online and remote education. This article examines the themes and topics that emerged from these discussions and proposes a Collaborative Framework for Accelerating Online Education. This framework highlights the need for rapid experimentation within larger design cycles as well as the coordination and cooperation of multiple stakeholders across all phases of research and development. The themes, topics, and framework that emerged from this work serve as a call to action for innovative approaches to developing and studying online education.

Formation of speech activity of primary school students in foreign language teaching through technology integration

The aim of this study is to create an activity by means of technology integration in the foreign language learning of primary school students. A quantitative research method was used in the study. The research was conducted in the fall semester of 2021–2022. A total of 248 voluntary primary school students who continued their education in Kazakhstan participated in the study. In the study, 3 weeks of online education, English education and mobile technology education were provided to elementary school students. In the study, the ‘technology in education’ measurement tool developed by the researchers and compiled by experts in the field was used. The measurement tool was delivered and collected by online method to primary school students. The analysis of the data was carried out using the SPSS programme; frequency analysis was carried out with t-test; and the results obtained were added to the study accompanied by tables. According to the results of the research, it was concluded that the technology and foreign language learning status of primary school students was high and the technology status was high at the same time in their English education.
 
 Keywords: Technology Education, English Education, Elementary School Students, Distance Education

Formation of speech activity of primary school students in foreign language teaching through technology integration

The aim of this study is to create an activity by means of technology integration in the foreign language learning of primary school students. A quantitative research method was used in the study. The research was conducted in the fall semester of 2021–2022. A total of 248 voluntary primary school students who continued their education in Kazakhstan participated in the study. In the study, 3 weeks of online education, English education and mobile technology education were provided to elementary school students. In the study, the ‘technology in education’ measurement tool developed by the researchers and compiled by experts in the field was used. The measurement tool was delivered and collected by online method to primary school students. The analysis of the data was carried out using the SPSS programme; frequency analysis was carried out with t-test; and the results obtained were added to the study accompanied by tables. According to the results of the research, it was concluded that the technology and foreign language learning status of primary school students was high and the technology status was high at the same time in their English education.
 
 Keywords: Technology Education, English Education, Elementary School Students, Distance Education

ORGANIZATIONAL AND PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE READINESS OF FUTURE MARITIME TRANSPORT SPECIALISTS FOR PROFESSIONAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE COMMUNICATION IN THE CONTEXT OF ONLINE EDUCATION

The broadening of the European and world space in the last years of the 21st century encourages direct contacts between state structures and social groups, provides a stimulus for cultural exchanges, scientific cooperation, and participation in international researching projects. Professional communication leads to the intensive development of society, which leads to globalization and expansion and becomes the reality of today. The formation of readiness for professional activity begins with motivation, namely: setting a goal, based on needs and goals or with a person’s awareness of the tasks. The development of a plan, models, schemes of further action is the nex means and methods of activity, compares the progress of the work performed and the obtained intermediate results with certain goals, makes adjustments. Modern pedagogical sources present various approaches to learning a foreign language, which is considered as a means of developing professional competence. At the same time, there is a lack of systematic pedagogical research on the conceptual foundations of mastering professional English using online education technologies. The implementation of online education as a tool and means for teaching and learning English (in our study “Professional English for future maritime transport specialists”) can be successful under different psychological and pedagogical conditions. We offer our own model of psychological and pedagogical conditions for the effective use of online technologies when implementing remote and mixed forms in the educational and extracurricular work of a higher educational institution. For this purpose, we summarized the experience of the Department of Foreign Languages of the State University of Infrastructure and Technologies from 2018 to 2022. Thismodelincludesthemainpsychologicalandpedagogical theories, which are the basis for the implementation of online education. The psychological processes involved in this type of educational technology are defined. The main contribution of our research is the identification of psychological barriers to effective adaptation to distance education using information technologies. We have offered practical recommendations to foreign language teachers who use this technology in educational and extracurricular processes.

CLASSROOM INTERACTION: A CASE STUDY IN INDONESIAN PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS' ONLINE WRITING COURSE

In higher education, the impact of online educational technology and the online classroom has had a variety of outcomes. This case study aimed to investigate the characteristics of interaction in an online writing course. It was conducted at one of the State Islamic Institutes in Indonesia. One lecturer and 48 pre-service English teachers participated in the study. In the writing course, the pre-service English teachers had to write narrative text, report text, and descriptive text; and the questions related to the material by using Chatbot application. Online observations done in Google Meet and interviews were utilized to gather the data. Content analysis was used to examine the data gathered. The results indicated that teacher-student (class), teacher-student(group), and student-student interactions were applied in the online class to improve the pre-service English teacher’s engagement and comprehension towards English writing skill. Besides, reward, break online room and peer review in online document were detected as effective ways in improving the classroom interaction effectiveness.

LABOR MOTIVATION AS A FACTOR OF INCREASING THE HUMAN POTENTIAL AND HUMAN CAPITAL OF THE STATE IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

This paper reviews the transformation of labor motivation in the conditions of digital economy development as a factor in the formation of new forms of human capital. It is shown that in the context of digitalization, it is necessary to create conditions for the formation of an employeeinnovator; changes in the competencies and skills of the mentor and student, the development of online educational technologies; an increase in the value of a personal brand; a significant improvement in the state of human capital/potential and an increase in the level of digitalization of domestic science.

Exploring online study behaviors of adult learners: A case study focusing on teachers’ professional development program

It requires a lot of energy to support the adoption of online learning by adult learners. Thus, the question of how online learning intersects with adult learning may provide meaningful pathways to understanding online learning per se. This study aims to understand the online study behaviors of teachers enrolled in an online Educational Technology Master’s program. This case study involved a Research Methods course, which was part of an online project for teachers. An online control list form and interviews were used as data collection tools. The results indicated that sharing, problem solving, product development, monitoring, and research were prominent activities that shape the study behaviors. While some of the behaviors in these activities indicated the reshaping of previous study behaviors, other behaviors newly appeared during the program. Characteristics of adult learners, online setting features, and the context of the projects were the main factors that influenced study behaviors. Finally, the implications for better online adult learning experiences are addressed.

Development of support software for inclusive online education

Situation with corona virus has demonstrated that online education is a compulsory measure in arrangement of education for children with disabilities. Learners with disabilities cannot capture educational programs without use of dedicated (adapted) educational programs, methods of teaching and upbringing, and also their software support. This article covers issues of arrangement of an educational process for learners with mental retardation with the use of online educational technologies and also describes experience of creation of “InclusiveEdu – Information Science 7” software within principal educational school program. It offers maximally available and efficient educational space, arrangement of which takes into account individual characteristics of learners. This educational space can involve all the participants in educational relations: learners, their parents (legal representatives), teachers, special community helpers. It has been found that mentally-retarded children prefer to watch and listen to information instead of reading. That is why the developed software product offers an opportunity to listen to important information. In order to test efficiency of the developed software, a pedagogical experiment was carried out in four schools of Almaty City in conditions of online education which produced positive results in favor of the offered teaching methodology.

Sustaining STEM Student Learning Support and Engagement during COVID-19

ABSTRACT This paper examined how an HSI-STEM grant project at one such college responded, confronting challenges of the transition to an all-online environment head-on and tapping its unexpected benefits. With a focus on STEM student services and programs, two aspects of the situation are analyzed and studied. Facilitating Innovation: STEM administrators had to think outside the box and employ extra effort to continue providing support services such as Supplemental Instruction and Counseling Services to ensure success for their students. We attempt below to identify key issues and obstacles met along the way and how they were addressed: How did peer Supplemental Instruction (SI) Leaders, trained for a classroom setting, modify their approach and engage students through virtual-classroom-supplemented instruction? How did academic counselors incorporate non-verbal communication and document-sharing in their outreach and interaction with their students? How did faculty and staff guide two-year-long student research projects during the pandemic? What sort of challenges did they face and how were they overcome? Looking Ahead and Moving Forward: What started as a shocked reaction in the face of a dizzying crisis had to be transformed, and urgently, into an effective, necessity-dictated response in service of continued STEM teaching-and-learning advancement. Some of the changes adopted through the pandemic may now be pleasantly irreversible. What impact did access to, and experience with, online educational technology has on existing learning processes and support systems? How effective these efforts were? What are the long-lasting effects of implemented change on traditional ways of doing business?

Parents’ Use of Digital Literacies to Support their Children with Disabilities in Online Learning Environments

An emerging research base has highlighted various roles and responsibilities that parents of students with disabilities accept when they enroll their children in online schools. Since finding and using online texts and using various programs and applications that require search and evaluation skills to do work are typical for online learning, it follows that part of parent responsibilities in many families might involve using basic technological literacies or even more advanced digital ones. To focus on the range of technological literacies that parents employ, researchers gathered self-report data from parents about how they engage with online education technologies while working with their children with disabilities. Interviews with (n = 32) parents across six states in the West, Midwest, and Southern United States revealed that parents employ various skills with a specific set of purposes in mind. Literacies were used to (a) perform basic technological computing tasks, (b) evaluate information to supplement existing instructional materials, and (c) communicate with the school about children’s needs. Reported purposes for using these skills emerged as (a) instructing, (b) monitoring, (c) advocating, and (d) learning school expectations. Implications of this study include the potential for literacy-based approaches to parent preparation for supporting vulnerable children in online settings.

Development of support software for inclusive online education

Situation with coronavirus has demonstrated that online education is a compulsory measure in arrangement of education for children with disabilities. Learners with disabilities cannot capture educational programs without use of dedicated (adapted) educational programs and methods of teaching and upbringing and also their software support. This article covers issues of arrangement of an educational process for learners with mental retardation with the use of online educational technologies and also describes experience of creation of ‘InclusiveEdu – Information Science 7’ software within principal educational school program. It offers maximum available and efficient educational space arrangement of which takes into account individual characteristics of learners and this educational space can involve all the participants in educational relations: learners, their parents (legal representatives), teachers, special community helpers. It has been found that mentally-retarded children prefer to watch and listen to information instead of reading. That is why the developed software product offers an opportunity to listen to important information. In order to test efficiency of the developed software, a pedagogical experiment was carried out in four schools of Almaty City in conditions of online education which produced positive results in favor of the offered teaching methodology. Key words: online education, inclusive education, inclusive online education, software, disabilities, mental retardation, dedicated educational programs, special educational needs.

Current Educational Technologies in English Lexis and Grammar Distance Learning at General Secondary Education Institutions

The question of the specifics of modern distance learning remains one of the most pressing issues, especially in today's world affected by global virus pandemic. We consider the study of the use of modern educational technologies in English lexis and grammar distance learning relevant and timely. The purpose of the article is to characterize popular current educational technologies and their possibilities in distance learning of English lexical and grammatical structures, to define five most perspective online services for pupils of general secondary education institutions. Methods. The author implements the purpose with the help of theoretical (analysis and synthesis of own experience and of domestic scientists concerning the use of existing educational innovative computer technologies in English learning) and empirical research methods (observation of the educational process), together with the elements of statistical (analysis of student survey results). The results. Considering student survey results, the author’s experience, the article names and characterizes 43 modern online educational technologies in English learning, they online platforms (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Skype, Nz.ua, ClassDojo, Moodl), online services (Google Drive, Padlet, Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Kahoot!, Grammarly, Quizlet, Quizizz, Plickers, Socrative, Hot Potatoes, LinguaLeo, ToonDoo, Classtime, Lang-8, Сoursera, LearnEnglish, BBC Learning English, British Council LearnEnglish, Tandem, Enpodcast, Bussu), mobile apps (Memrise, Rosetta Stone, Babbel, FluentU, MindSnacks, Open Language, Mosalingua, Messenger, Telegram, Viber, WhatsАрp), virtual whiteboard (Paint, Google Slides, Bitpaper.io). The article suggests grouping these technologies according to 7 purposes of use (to conduct online English lessons in real time; to create virtual classes, lessons and tasks; to send tasks and communicate; online services for learning English vocabulary and grammar; to use a virtual board; to store works and materials of pupils; to assess and control English language skills). Conclusions. The benefit of the study is that the possibilities of online services in distance learning of English lexical and grammatical structures have been emphasized, and five the most perspective for pupils of general secondary education institutions have been defined as Moodle, Google Classroom, Google Forms, Kahoot!, Zoom.

Leveraging Ed-tech in the Co-curricular Space: Reflections on Design and Development Aspects of the Class Representative Induction Programme at the University of Cape Town

Every year, class representatives are elected at the University of Cape Town to represent students on academic matters in relation to a specific academic course. A vital element of this representative role is to advocate for an enabling learning environment that promotes learning excellence. In preparing class representatives for their leadership roles, the Department of Student Affairs, in partnership with the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) and the Faculty Councils, host and facilitate a class representative induction programme. The induction typically utilised face-to-face synchronous teaching methods. However, since the advent of Covid-19, adaptions to the induction programme had to be made in order to reflect the new normal imposed by the pandemic. Against this backdrop, this article addresses various design-related choices encountered from an online education technology perspective. Key areas of reflection include working with the SRC Undergraduate Academic Co-ordinator and Faculty Councils as a design team in transitioning a, hitherto, synchronous programme catering for approximately 420 class representatives, from a face-to-face mode of delivery to an online mode of delivery. Particular attention is paid to the social constructivist design elements of the programme development process and how these elements were managed with regards to the enablements and constraints encountered in the virtual space by exploring the technological affordances of various ed-tech options available to student affairs practitioners. This article contributes to the practitioner literature by demonstrating how ed-tech can be leveraged to aid in the preservation of existing practices as blended learning approaches continue to shape and augment the future of co-curricular programme delivery in higher education.

Transformation of university teachers’ professional activity during the pandemic

The transition of the educational system to a distance format due to the spread of COVID-19 has led to a transformation in the nature and content of professional activities of university teachers. A wide range of research methods, the results of sociological surveys and interviews, as well as an analysis of text arrays from Internet resources, are used to assess the socio-psychological consequences of remote employment. Drawing a conclusion on their remote employment, teachers note the acquisition of a unique experience consisting not only in the mastery of online educational technologies but also in the implementation of new models of professional interaction with students and colleagues. Teachers associate the perspectives for further transformation of their professional activity with the formation of new combined (multi-format) models of education. At the same time, there forms a system of negative expectations as teachers believe that the launched process of transformation of education will lead to stricter requirements for the teacher as the subjects of educational and labor relations, as well as to the destabilization of the situation in the professional labor market.

Online Education Skills of Teachers: Four Axes of Gaps

There is a diversity in the teachers’ digital capabilities of online education skills and many research related this for decades. According to the literature review teachers were being discriminated based on numerous gaps. This paper seeks to assess the existence of gaps of teachers’ online education skills in the four axes: access, age, gender, and language. A research was carried out through an online questionnaire and the results of technology-based online education skills; web-based online education skills, and administrative online education skills were analysed statistically. There was a significant digital convergence among the teachers surveyed, which is important for their ability to deliver effective online courses. To bridge these gaps in the educational world of teachers, in-service training plans should be made, collaboratively with the online education experts and technology experts. This research study has some significant results compared to the studies delivered in the last decade.

Do teamwork experience and self-regulated learning determine the performance of students in an online educational technology course?

This study uses the quantitative research approach to examine the connection between students’ teamwork experience, self-regulated learning, technology self-efficacy, and performance in an online educational technology course. Sixty-three (63) students participated in this study. The study data were collected through an online questionnaire that included background information, course satisfaction, motivation strategies for learning, and online technology self-efficacy, to study the variables’ interactions using quantitative research. To realize this study’s aims, multivariate regression and correlation approaches were employed to analyze the online students’ data. The multivariate regression analysis results show a relationship between self-regulated learning, the online course level, and the number of online courses that the students have completed. Right self-regulated learning strategies in online courses motivate students to strive for a good teamwork experience, leading to increased interest in online learning. In addition, the results also show that there is a relationship between satisfaction and the level of the online course. Achieving good grades makes the student more satisfied and improves the level of technology use. Finally, this study established a relationship between the students’ motivation and the online course level. Therefore, teachers and course designers should implement learning objects that promote students’ engagement and motivation in online learning environments.

The State-of-the-Art on Collective Intelligence in Online Educational Technologies

The application of the collective intelligence (CI) concept has yielded significant results in many knowledge areas and it has substantial potential to yield results in the educational context. In view of distance education and online educational technologies, the use of CI has enormous potential to improve collaboration, social learning, and problem solving. However, there is still not a clear understanding of how CI has been used in combination with online educational technologies, due to a lack of secondary studies in this context. Thus, in this article, we conducted a systematic literature review with the objectives of determining how CI has been used in online learning environments and identifying the benefits and/or the difficulties that are encountered in the process of its use. We have analyzed 354 studies and only 30 have met our inclusion criteria. The main contributions to online learning of these 30 studies were categorized and discussed. Our results have shown that CI enables the exploration. of the potential of collaboration and collaborative learning in social environments to create more diverse educational contents and to improve educational aspects using group intelligence. Moreover, approximately 74% of the studies presented positive evidence of learning benefits. However, approximately 40% of the studies also presented positive evidence of implementation difficulties. These and other results presented in this article demonstrate that more research is necessary to explore the potential of CI in online learning technologies.

Online Education Participants: Standing Together or Falling Apart?

The paper summarizes the findings from research by Russian scholars into the expansion of online education technologies into Russian universities. Risks are described connected with the unpreparedness of the education process participants to be fully engaged in the new education format. Two opinion polls were organized among students and university staff in order to reveal their assessment of education strategies and their involvement in online education. The study has shown that neither students nor academic staff at provincial universities are sufficiently involved in the process, which does not enable any forecast to be made pertaining to online training efficiency. So far, it is only the opportunities to access, participate and use online education that can be assessed. The survey has revealed a significant difference in students’ and lecturers’ perception of online education. While students are ready to switch to the new format, lecturers prefer classical approaches. They display negative attitudes, tend to avoid changes and stress that the expansion of online education services may result in a lower status and loss of prestige for the teaching profession. The possibility of their participation in developing online education products is doubtful. The lack of either experience or desire to be involved in the process may result in a low quality of online courses and programs, if developed. The study enables the authors to define a problem field of youth education choice management. This field includes issues of self-study needs satisfaction, a lower level of knowledge in today’s young generation and information retaining difficulty, the “external memory” problem resulting from the abundance of gadgets et cetera. Risks are described pertaining to youth’s uncontrolled involvement in online education alternatives connected with human capital structure changes, emergence of negative generation characteristics and education prospects.
 Keywords: youth, academic staff, education, education strategies, online education, self-study

PECULIARITIES OF THE INFLUENCE OF DISTANCE LEARNING ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF STUDENTS OF MODERN INSTITUTIONS OF DIFFERENT TYPES

The article is considered the impact of the role of innovative educational technologies and analyzed the factors, that study the impact of distance education on the quality of life of students of modern institutions of various types and features of education during quarantine. To assess the impact of innovative educational technologies of distance education on the quality of life and students of modern institutions of various types, conducted an analysis of progress in the implementation of innovative online technologies and the latest approaches to studying, developed by the Department of Hygiene and Ecology of Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University. Also, during the stay of students at the Department of Hygiene and Ecology, the results of the quality of the transition to distance education were evaluated using innovative online educational technologies by oral and written questionnaires of students about their opinion on the impact of distance education on the quality of life. Therefore, despite a number of shortcomings, modern innovative methods and technologies of distance education are the great instrument for the development and knowledge of modern civilization, which have a positive impact on the quality of life of students. In order to increase the effectiveness of innovative information technologies in modern educational institutions of various types, it is necessary to create a certain system that provides a different understanding of the content, structure and purpose of the educational process. The aim of the research was to study the impact of innovative educational technologies and analyze the factors that study the impact of distance education on the quality of life of students of modern institutions of different types and features of education during quarantine. Specialization of e-learning, connection to telecommunications, Internet resources and services, have the different impact on the selection and structuring of content, ways of implementing modern methods and forms of education, as well as a significant impact on the functioning of this system. Learning activities intensify the processes of cognition, thinking and stimulating young people receive more and more new and interesting information, which finds a framework for standard, limited information about time. The teacher in this situation helps, encourages to the individual development, opens, supports the coverage of their own point of view, evaluates new points of view on the topic of communication and education, leaving before more participants in the dialogue than the leader. Applicants study individually in accordance with the developed program, but there is always the opportunity to communicate through innovative means of communication. In such situation, the quality of education largely depends on the characteristics and methods of presentation of material, ways to control the performance of work and the level of communication with the teacher, and largely on the subjective feeling of psychological comfort in this situation. Thus, the introduction of quality-level distance education in Ukraine during the quarantine period started in connection with the COVID epidemic will certainly affect the quality of life of graduates of modern educational institutions of different types and methods of teaching and will improve the quality and accessibility of education in the country.