Students In Virtual Learning Environments Research Articles

ONLINE-BASED SCIENCE PROJECT LEARNING AS AN ELECTIVE INSTRUCTING MODEL TO IMPROVE THE COLLABORATIVE SKILLS OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

In the era of Intelligent Society 5.0, collaborative skills, which can be defined as the ability to work effectively with others to achieve common goals, are essential competencies for students to thrive. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effectiveness of Online-based Science Project Learning (SPL) as a substitute instructional model for fostering collaborative skills among elementary school students. The study participants consisted of 75 elementary school fifth-grade students, distributed across three classes in Muhammadiyah Islamic Elementary School, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. It is important to comprehend that this examination was a replica of a preliminary test, and was conducted following the same methodology without the inclusion of a control group. The study design utilized a single-group approach, incorporating both a pretest and a posttest assessment. Furthermore, data analysis was conducted through paired t-test, n-gain calculation, and ANOVA using IBM SPSS version 25. The obtained results showed a statistically significant increase in the collective proficiency score of the observed students, as assessed at a 5% alpha level, after their engagement with the online-based Science Project Learning (SPL) model. Additionally, the average n-gains for the three grades were high, with no grade-level differences, and over 90% of the students responded positively to the online-based SPL Model teaching method. Based on these findings, it was concluded that online-based SPL models improved the collaborative work skills of the observed students. This study has several implications. First, it enhances the understanding of 21st-century life skills and abilities among elementary school teachers in Indonesia. Second, it suggests the potential for expanding the scope of the subject matter. Third, it underscores the importance of government collaborations in studies that prioritize the development of 4C skills, particularly collaboration, among students. Moreover, the study also emphasizes the necessity of online-based Science Project Learning (SPL) for scholars interested in remote learning, with a focus on examining the collaborative abilities and science learning outcomes of elementary students in virtual learning environments.

Post-Secondary Student Belonging in a Virtual Learning Environment During COVID-19

Psychological and social adjustment and academic success in post-secondary institutions are supported by a sense of belonging to a social group and having meaningful relationships with other students, staff, and faculty members. This exploratory study used a qualitative approach to investigate post-secondary students’ sense of belonging in the virtual learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted at a small Western Canadian university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants who were undergraduate students, from various faculties, and in different years in their programs. Findings were clustered into three themes: (1) student expectations of university, (2) impact of virtual learning environments on students, and (3) the role of educators. Recommendations are included to enhance support and belonging for post-secondary students in virtual learning environments.

Transforming the Online Learning Experience

Background College instruction has experienced a significant movement toward increased online learning course options. Without appropriate supports, students in virtual learning environments often face greater challenges with self-regulation, motivation, and recognizing the personal relevance of course content. Objective The current study focuses on the prevalence of personal relevance and its associated impact on cognitive and motivational variables including achievement emotion, intrinsic value, self-efficacy, test anxiety, cognitive strategy use, self-regulation, and metacognition in a virtual learning environment. Method Students in two online graduate level human development courses completed a series of questionnaires ( N = 73) for course credit. Results Results show the high transformative experience (TE) group reported significantly higher positive emotions, interest, intrinsic value, self-efficacy, cognitive strategy use, test anxiety, and self-regulation, giving them more cognitive and motivational benefits than those who experienced low levels. They also show no relationship between TE and course grade. Conclusion Future research in this area may benefit from focus on ways to intentionally increase TEs from online contexts to real-life contexts. Teaching Implications Such research would allow instructors intentionality in pedagogical endeavors while allowing students to integrate course information into their daily lives.

Maintaining Middle School Students’ Engagement in Virtual Learning Environments

The current COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges for teachers as they transition to teaching in virtual learning environments. Virtual learning environments have forced educators to adapt teaching strategies and become creative and innovative to maintain student engagement (Korkmaz & Toraman, 2020). Middle school social studies teachers have always dealt with a lack of student interest in learning history, and the current instructional setting is requiring a reimagined teacher craft to deliver high-quality instruction. The interaction between students and teachers often depends on the content, highly effective questioning, choice in response methods, technology tools, or learning platforms (Czerkawski & Lyman, 2016). A conceptual understanding of the types of engagement, including cognitive, affective, and behavioral (Buric & Franzel, 2020; Raes, Vanneste, Pieters, Windey, Van Den Noortgate & Depaepe, 2020; Van Uden, Ritzen & Pieters, 2013; Ding, Kim & Orey, 2017) will help inform the types of instructional strategies that will be most effective at increasing and maintaining student engagement. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences and problems associated with engaging students in virtual learning environments for middle school social studies teachers in a border school district with over 40,000 students. The overarching theme that emerged from the data collected was that teachers play a significant role in creating a learning environment that supports students, encourages participation through interactive technology, and nurtures relationships to promote student engagement. Findings suggest educators understand the challenges educators face to keep students engaged and motivated, and some of the best practices that can increase student engagement in virtual learning.

Research competences in university students in virtual learning environments

Research competencies are adopted in higher education, however, little is known about the role of these competencies in the virtual environment. This research is one of the first to describe research competences in postgraduate students in virtual learning environments. An observational design study using the research competences questionnaire was conducted with 89 students. The findings indicate that cognitive and teamwork competences are the most predominant (58.4% and 71.9%) and that the weakest areas are related to technological competences 33.7%, methodological competences 39.7% and project management 22.5%. These findings highlight the need to improve curricula in postgraduate schools where research competences are strengthened by prioritising technological, methodological and project management aspects so that students obtain the necessary skills and abilities and can improve their research processes.
 
 Keywords: research competences, virtual learning environments, research training.

E-Assessment at Jordan’s Universities in the Time of the COVID-19 Lockdown: Challenges and Solutions

This study aims to delineate the observations of instructors at Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) in Jordan with regards to online assessment of their students in the time of the Coronavirus lockdown. Specifically, the study attempts to find out whether universities are prepared for online assessment during the lockdown and to probe feasible solutions to the challenges that hinder proper assessment in a virtual learning environment (VLE). As the challenges are determined, the study suggests a number of practical solutions. Data on faculty’s observations were obtained by means of an online survey. Eighty-three faculty members participated in this study. The findings showed that universities swiftly shifted to e-classes during the lockdown but that they were not adequately primed for an appropriate assessment in an online environment. The findings further showed that instructors were skeptical about the efficiency of remote assessment of their students. In addition, faculty members believed there was still a long way to go with regards to (1) the unavailability of reliable software to preclude academic dishonesty; (2) some faculty being unable to assess their students in VLE as it was their first experience; and (3) formative assessment not having been given enough attention. It is concluded that universities should have an exigency strategy for any sudden future lockdowns. This strategy includes, among other things, intensive e-teaching and e-testing training for faculty, high-tech invigilation and plagiarism software, reliable e-learning platforms with sufficient Internet bandwidth, setting up an e-assessment council at the university level.

A Conceptual Framework for Real-Time Emotional-State Monitoring of Students in VLEs to Identify Students at Risk

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) feature rich textual data which lend itself naturally to the identification and monitoring of aspects of students’ interactions. While reducing attrition and improving performance remain the primary objectives of learning analytics, we contend that student contributed text can be used to learn about emotions and other extra-rational features. This would help provide a response to the recent cries for help from the sector, seeking a system looking to address the worrying mental health crisis trends. This paper addresses these issues by discussing the necessary mechanisms within a conceptual framework which would sit in a VLE and capture emotional state changes in the students’ interaction style or tone. For such a framework, the aim would be to help educators to carry out timely interventions when a potential cause of distress is identified. Experimental results on available datasets from education and psychology serve as a feasibility study for these tasks, and offer a perspective on the potential of the approach.

Artificial neural network analysis of the academic performance of students in virtual learning environments

Educational institutions continually strive to improve the services they offer, their aim is to have the best possible teaching staff, increase the quality of teaching and the academic performance of their students. A knowledge of the factors that affect student learning could help universities and study centres adjust their curricula and teaching methods to the needs of their students. One of the first measures employed by teaching institutions was to create Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). This type of environment makes it possible to attract a larger number of students because it enables them to study from wherever they are in the world, meaning that the student’s location is no longer a constraint. Moreover, VLEs facilitate access to teaching resources, they make it easier to monitor the activity of the teaching staff and of the interactions between students and teachers. Thus, online environments make it possible to assess the factors that cause the students’ academic performance to increase or decrease.To understand the factors that influence the university learning process, this paper applies a series of automatic learning techniques to a public dataset, including tree-based models and different types of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). Having applied these techniques to the dataset, the number of times students have accessed the resources made available on VLE platforms has been identified as a key factor affecting student performance. This factor has been analysed by conducting a real case study which has involved 120 students doing a masters degree over a VLE platform. Concretely, the case study participants were masters degree students in areas related to computer engineering at the University of Salamanca.

Learning Analytics to improve retention

Introduction Recent technological developments have allowed Learning Analytics (LA) researchers to capture the digital traces of the learning activities of students in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). This rich and fine-grained data about actual learner behaviours are claimed to offer educators potentially valuable insights into how students react to different learning designs and how ‘at-risk’ students could be supported to complete their studies. Learning Analytics was defined back in ...

Múltiplos Enfoques sobre as Competências na Educação a Distância: Uma Problematização Necessária

O presente artigo resgata as competências dos alunos de Educação a Distância (EaD) em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem (AVA) em relação às competências dos professores-tutores para que se obtenha a experiência da aprendizagem significativa. Para tanto, problematiza as competências dos alunos diante de sua formação no ensino presencial, propõe seu desenvolvimento por meio da intervenção do professor-tutor e apresenta as competências que este deve ter para a construção de um processo de ensino voltado à centralidade do aluno.
 Palavras-chave: Competências. Aluno. Professor-tutor.

Reasons that Affect the Interaction Among Students in Virtual Learning Environment

With the development of the technology, virtual learning environments are seeing wider application in college education. The research goal of this paper is mainly to explore the influence of the interaction between students and students in the virtual learning environment, and to improve students’ academic performance. The paper takes the online course of Canvas platform set by international college of China Agricultural University as an example, summarizes the interactive function of Canvas platform from the perspective of students and teachers, and conducts a questionnaire survey on students. Through analysis, the authors find that both teachers and students believe that the interaction in the virtual learning environment can improve students’ academic performance. And the gender and the major are key factors.

An Emotion Recognition Model Based on Facial Recognition in Virtual Learning Environment

The purpose of this study is to introduce a method based on facial recognition to identify students’ understanding of the entire distance learning process. This study proposes a learning emotion recognition model, which consists of three stages: Feature extraction, subset feature and emotion classifier. A Haar Cascades method is used to detect the input image, a face, as the basis for the extraction of eyes and mouth, and then through the Sobel edge detection to obtain the characteristic value. Through Neural Network classifier training, six kinds of different emotional categories are obtained. Experiments using JAFF database show that the proposed method has high classification performance. Experimental results show that the model proposed in this paper is consistent with the expressions from the learning situation of students in virtual learning environments. This paper demonstrates that emotion recognition based on facial expressions is feasible in distance education, permitting identification of a student’s learning status in real time. Therefore, it can help teachers to change teaching strategies in virtual learning environments according to the student’s emotions.

User Modeling Approach for Dyslexic Students in Virtual Learning Environments

Dyslexia or reading disability is one of the most common learning disabilities. It is defined as a disorder manifested by difficulty in learning to read despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence, and sociocultural opportunity. In this paper the authors focus on the potential benefits of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for students with dyslexia to promote the learning process, by considering the relationship between their learning style preferences and their cognitive traits in virtual learning environments. At this propose the authors investigated the relationship between dyslexic's learning style and cognitive trait within the hypothesis that dyslexic learners may have possible preferences in virtual learning environment, which may be used to improve the dyslexic user modelling. The aim of this paper is to provide an adaptive learning environment for users with dyslexia based on their learning styles preferences and their cognitive traits.

Using Dynamic Environments in Foreign Language Teaching

With the advent of virtual environments, challenges and opportunities for innovative teaching and enhancement of student learning can be conducted more efficiently. What is important to this process is the use of strategies to foster transfer of knowledge generation dispositions from teacher to learner. The concept of leveraging strategic control of the knowledge from teachers to students in virtual learning environments functions as the basis for determining how to make students apply knowledge subsequent to the acquisition of knowledge. Learners of this century are born into digital world. They connect, share and learn by means of latest advances in technology. One of these innovations is social media which embrace web-based and mobile-based technologies to facilitate interactive communication between individuals, institutions, and communities. The Virtual Classroom enables an online learning environment to utilize a learning management system by which the teacher provides course content using a variety of resources and tools. Therefore it provides effective means of teaching students who are dispersed across different locations. Instructional strategies for fostering student engagement in foreign language classrooms are regarded as critical and a variety of theories focus on student learning, needs and adult concerns that provide a basis for transfer of knowledge from teacher to learner. In this study, a recent model which is composed of the dimensions of knowledge, teaching approach and knowledge authority is presented to design virtual learning environments in foreign language teaching. The study was carried out in Selcuk University, School of Foreign Languages in Konya. The results of the study show that dynamic virtual environments are quite significant in foreign language education.

Engagement of Undergraduate Nursing Students in Virtual Learning Environment in Karachi Pakistan

Aga Khan University (AKU) is implementing blended learning (BL) in their existing programs. This study reports the use of BL mode in one of the courses entitled Advanced Concepts of Community Health nursing (ACCHN), offered for undergraduate nursing students, for the first time in Karachi Pakistan. A qualitative exploratory design was adopted.The year II students of Post-RN BScN programme who were studying the course were invited to participate in the study. Data was collected by using focus group discussions (FGDs.). Students found ACCHN course flexible because of the use of blended modalities. They felt that their learning was enhanced by multiple resources shared by faculty on Moodle. In terms of strategies, students found Vodcasts useful. Moreover, few students felt DFs were not as useful, due to wordy posts, which were time consuming to read and understand. Students also found lack of facilitation by faculty on DFs. Students suggested that faculty can use synchronous modes such as Skype and Webex to summarize the discussions. Load shedding and low bandwidth were also discussed by students as obstacles in successful implementation of the course. The findings concluded that bandwidth and electricity issue at home needs to be resolved at the national level.

Evaluation of the interactivity of students in virtual learning environments using a multicriteria approach and data mining

This work seeks to provide a new multicriteria approach to evaluate and classify the level of interactivity of students in learning management systems (LMS). We describe, step by step, the complete methodological development process of the evaluation model as well as detailing the results obtained when applying it to a higher education teaching experience. This research demonstrates that the combined use of multicriteria decision methodologies and data mining prove to be particularly suitable for identifying behavioural patterns of the users through the analysis of records generated in LMS. The results reveal that the behavioural patterns in LMS offer certain indicators as to students’ academic performance, although the study does not permit to state that those students who adopt passive attitudes in these spheres may necessarily produce low academic performance.

U‐TA: A ubiquitous teaching assistant using knowledge retrieval and adaptive learning techniques

AbstractUsing mobile agents to assist students in virtual learning environments has become increasingly common for hands‐on experiments. Although virtual learning environments provide mobile agents as a platform for services to learners, one type of mobile agent only serves in one course, bringing possible benefits to users. This study was conducted to use agent techniques to construct a ubiquitous teaching assistant (u‐TA) for assisting students solve problems in laboratory courses. We gave the u‐TA enhanced social skills so that it can reduce the burden on teachers. The proposed u‐TA system consists of both Web‐based and instant messenger‐based (IM‐based) interfaces, and the u‐TA can learn from other agents by analyzing their dialogues. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the u‐TA and the results show that the u‐TA can assist students and share the TA's workload in courses. The experimental results also demonstrated that the u‐TA has good communications ability; its two user interfaces can increase interactions with students. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 245–255, 2013

Fostering Students‘ Personal Development through Designing a Personal Tutorship Programme in e-Learning Environments

 Abstract—This paper addresses the importance of Personal Development of students in virtual learning environments and designs a specific approach for fostering their personal capabilities facilitated by a Personal Tutorship Programme in e-learning platforms. This programme tries to extend students' learning beyond the disciplinary focus and engage them in acquiring some essential competencies they will need in their professional and personal life. To do so, one storyboard has been drawn based on the current literature as well as experiences of some experts including students, entrepreneurs and academics represented through some focus groups. This storyboard designs a structured on-line framework for supporting students' personal development via an interactive and bilateral personal tutorship facility. Our primary focus is on allocating some technical capabilities in an e-learning platform based on the personal pedagogical experiences of participants, enabling students to use them for their personal development planning. Before drawing the storyboard four descriptive components named Functional Specifications (FS) have been written based on the participants' experiences, trying for defining different aspects of the storyboard. Descriptions and examples are given of some different approaches that are being used to support this facility. While the paper is written from an e-learning perspective, the issues and processes raised are applicable to any higher education system that seeks to value and reward personal development via designing an academic advisory system for their students.

Fostering Students’ Personal Development in e-Learning Environments through Designing an e-Progress File System

This paper addresses the importance of Personal Development of students in virtual learning environments and suggests a system which can be embedded in the e-learning platforms for tracking and fostering their personal capabilities. This tracking system tries to monitor and document students' progress in the different aspects related to their studies, research, personal development progress, etc., helping them extend their learning beyond the disciplinary focus and engage them in acquiring some essential competencies they will need in their professional and personal life. To do so, a storyboard has been drawn based on the current literature as well as experiences of some experts including students, entrepreneurs and academics represented through some focus groups. Our primary focus is on allocating some technical capabilities in an e-learning platform based on the personal pedagogical experiences of participants, enabling both students and tutors to use them for their personal development planning. Before drawing the storyboard five descriptive components named Functional Specifications (FS) have been written based on the participants' experiences, trying for defining different aspects of the storyboard. Descriptions and examples are given of some different approaches that are being used to support this storyboard. While the paper is written from an e-learning perspective, the issues and processes raised are applicable to any higher education system that seeks to value and reward personal development.