Teaching-learning Systems Research Articles

Accessibility Barriers for Blind Students in Teaching-learning Systems

The use of digital technology by educators has received increasingly higher focus in the recent years. In spite of this, students with disabilities still face many accessibility obstacles while using digital technologies. In this context, this paper has the main goal of identifying the accessibility barriers faced by the community of blind students and highlighting the main factors that hinder this community from accessing learning objects. For this purpose, initially, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted, with which it was possible to collect the main accessibility problems identified by the scientific community. In order to complement and detail the information obtained in the SLR, a questionnaire was submitted to blind students, in which it was possible to discover new difficulties from a practical point of view. Finally, the accessibility barriers found in the SLR and in the questionnaire responses were analyzed and the results obtained were related to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the main document that explains how to make web content accessible for people with disabilities. This work seeks to explain the main factors that hinder or prevent access to learning objects in teaching-learning systems, promote a discussion on alternatives for improving these resources, identify gaps and guide more detailed studies on the subject.

Influence of instructors’ adaptability and management of virtual classroom environments on the effectiveness of tertiary students’ virtual knowledge acquisition

This paper explored how instructors’ technological adaptability and management of virtual classroom environments affects the quality of students’ virtual learning experiences and the effectiveness of their virtual knowledge acquisition in Ghanaian tertiary institutions. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 700 graduate students. The data was analysed inferentially using the structural equation modelling approach with the analysis of moment structures as the analytical technique. In this technique, path analysis was conducted to test derived hypotheses of the relatedness of the study variables, which served as components in a conceptualised framework developed to guide the study. It was found that instructors’ technological adaptability of virtual classroom environments will directly enhance their management capabilities of virtual teaching–learning systems, which will also directly increase the quality of students’ virtual learning experiences. It was also found that although instructors’ adaptability of virtual classroom environments will not directly increase the quality of students’ virtual learning experiences, it can have an indirect consequence on the quality of student learning. The paper concludes that instructors’ acquisitions of the requisite technological competence to enable them positively to adapt to virtual classroom environments will help enhance their management capabilities of the virtual teaching–learning systems. The study outcome provides academics and education researchers and administrators a good practical perspective of technological adaption of educational teaching–learning tools, systems and mechanisms for enhancing the effective management of virtual classroom systemic activity. It also provides an important pedagogic insight that could enable future study of efficient and effective design of digitised virtual classrooms to enhance virtual teaching–learning practice.

IMPACT OF VIRTUAL LEARNING ON PERCEIVED MENTAL HEALTH OF COLLEGE STUDENTS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The study in this article addresses three research questions: a) how do college students view the effectiveness of technology-mediated virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic; b) how does virtual learning impact their perceived mental health; and c) what is the mode of learning they most prefer? It follows an explanatory research design and survey method. Data are collected using a questionnaire with a purposive sample of 102 students and interviews with 20 students and 40 faculty members in India. The conceptual framework of this study is quite similar to the modified version of the Technology Acceptance Model (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000). The study reveals that 86% of the students find virtual learning to be ineffective. Such learning not only fails to provide adequate opportunities for experiential learning for developing knowledge, skills, and leadership abilities but also creates several perceived mental health problems. This study may help higher education institutions while designing and implementing virtual teaching-learning systems in order to prevent their negative impact on student’s perceived mental health in future crises. Keywords: Virtual learning, perceived mental health, COVID-19 pandemic, Behavioural Intention, Perceived Usefulness

Educational Service and Quality Assurance from the Perception of Teachers and Students during COVID-19 in an Accredited and Certified Administration Degree Program

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has evidenced the fragility of the education system at all levels, which is why the call of the United Nations through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Agenda 2030, specifically Goal 4, is especially relevant. Additionally, Pope Francis, at the end of the year 2020, proposes to the world a Global Pact on Education, in view of the increase of the social debt due to the unprecedented affectation of the educational system. This disruption in the lives of all people due to compulsory isolation gave way to a change of era and surprised the face-to-face education supply, which had to adjust to a new way of educating. The capacity for resilience made it possible to evaluate, analyze and visualize transformation processes in education, whether in the management of the educational service and/or in the teaching-learning systems. Therefore, this work aims to identify the perception of teachers and students regarding the educational service and quality assurance in COVID-19 time, of an accredited and certified Administration career, belonging to a prestigious university in Ecuador with Ignatian educational model, during the year 2020.

SHIFTING PARADIGM IN THE 21ST CENTURY: PLANS TO REORIENT INDIAN SCHOOL LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS AND TEACHER EDUCATORS

This paper aims at presenting some of the additions and modifications in bridging the gap between the earlier planning and policies and the emerging challenges in English language education in India and then suggests how to reorient Indian English language teachers basically at primary and secondary levels keeping in view the national and international requirements. Firstly, it reviews the English language teacher education and current practices of English language teaching and learning systems both in vernacular and English medium schools in India. Secondly, it critically examines the national policy documents such as Position Papers and curricula for English. Thirdly, it focuses on the drawbacks in the existing practices of English language education and the emerging global challenges of communication and interpersonal skills. Then, it chalks out a plan for redesigning the basic teaching-learning systems which includes psychological, socio-cultural, pedagogic and professional factors to be considered in the inter-related domains. It also envisages the typical Indian multilingual and multicultural contexts and redefines rural area English language teachers’ responsibilities in strategy and skill-based classroom orientation with updated scientific knowledge of teaching and learning on indigenous bases by introducing the tenets of post method pedagogy and ka:rmik language teaching approach.

E-Learning Platform Assessment and Selection Using Two-Stage Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach with Grey Theory: A Case Study in Vietnam

Education has changed dramatically due to the severe global pandemic COVID-19, with the phenomenal growth of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. E-learning is revolutionizing education systems, as it remains the only option during the ongoing crisis and has tremendous potential to fulfill instructional plans and safeguard students’ learning rights. The selection of e-learning platforms is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. Expert analyses over numerous criteria and alternatives are usually linguistic terms, which can be represented through grey numbers. This article proposes an integrated approach of grey analytic hierarchy process (G-AHP) and grey technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (G-TOPSIS) to evaluate the best e-learning website for network teaching. This introduced approach handles the linguistic evaluation of experts based on grey systems theory, estimates the relative importance of evaluation criteria with the G-AHP method, and acquires e-learning websites’ ranking utilizing G-TOPSIS. The applicability and superiority of the presented method are illustrated through a practical e-learning website selection case in Vietnam. From G-AHP analysis, educational level, price, right and understandable content, complete content, and up-to-date were found as the most impactful criteria. From G-TOPSIS, Edumall is the best platform. Comparisons are conducted with other MCDM methods; the priority orders of the best websites are similar, indicating the robust proposed methodology. The proposed integrated model in this study supports the stakeholders in selecting the most effective e-learning environments and could be a reference for further development of e-learning teaching-learning systems.

Change of Processes in the COVID-19 Scenario: From Face-to-Face to Remote Teaching-Learning Systems

COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation in teaching-learning environments. Universities based on face-to-face models have had to quickly adapt their processes to ensure the success of remote teaching-learning systems in the last months. The growing demand for technological resources has meant an effort to understand the requirements and variables that affect students’ acceptance, intention to use, and adoption of these tools. This study aims to analyze students’ acceptance of online processes adopted by universities because of the COVID-19 scenario. Although this study is based on a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), it also considers other factors, such as perceived efficiency and satisfaction. A questionnaire was built and distributed to 313 students. The data were processed using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) method. The results indicate that 30.7% of the students improved their views of remote education using online systems. However, 49.9% of students do not believe that face-to-face teaching-learning education will be replaced by virtual teaching-learning education in the long term. Our findings confirm that the enriched TAM model built provides a useful theoretical approach to understanding and explaining users’ acceptance of remote learning environments when there is a need to rapidly migrate from face-to-face to online teaching-learning processes.

Conectivismo y neuroeducación: transdisciplinas para la formación en la era digital

Se hace una revisión de la literatura con el objetivo exponer crítica y analíticamente cómo el conectivismo y la neuroeducación son transdisciplinas que explican procesos formativos en la era digital. La información develó dinámicas e interpretaciones desde diferentes posturas epistémicas. En la fase heurística se tomaron criterios como año de publicación, idioma, metodología, hallazgos; se procedió a la fase hermenéutica donde se interpretó y concluyó que la era tecnocientífica ha traído consecuencias y cambios en los sistemas de enseñanza-aprendizaje, por lo que se requieren referentes que adviertan cómo es el aprendizaje y la construcción de conocimiento no necesariamente en la mente sino a través de dispositivos e infraestructuras tecnológicas que obligan también a la comprensión del funcionamiento del cerebro.

Classifying and Solving Arithmetic Math Word Problems—An Intelligent Math Solver

Solving mathematical (math) word problems (MWP) automatically is a challenging research problem in natural language processing, machine learning, and education (learning) technology domains, which has gained momentum in the recent years. Applications of solving varieties of MWPs can increase the efficacy of teaching-learning systems, such as e-learning systems, intelligent tutoring systems, etc., to help improve learning (or teaching) to solve word problems by providing interactive computer support for peer math tutoring. This article is specifically intended to benefit such teaching-learning systems on arithmetic word problems solving by adding an interactive and intelligent word problem solver to assess an individual's learning outcome. This article presents arithmetic mathematical word problems solver (AMWPS), an educational software application for solving arithmetic word problems involving single equation with single operation. This article is based on a combination of a machine learning based (classification) approach and a rule-based approach. We start with classification of arithmetic word problems into four categories (Change, Compare, Combine, and Division-Multiplication) along with their subcategories, followed by the classification of operations (+, -, *, and /) related to different subcategories. Our system processes an input arithmetic word problem, predicts the category and subcategory, predicts the operation, identifies and retrieves the relevant quantities within the problem with respect to answer generation, and formulates and evaluates the mathematical expression to generate the final answer. AMWPS outperformed similar systems on the standard AddSub and SingleOp datasets and produced new state-of-the-art result (94.22% accuracy).

SOCMS : Smart online class monitoring system

In today’s scenario, online teaching and learning platforms opened numerous opportunities and wider scope for gaining knowledge from anywhere in the world. The online method of teaching is not a novice one, but with the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic, a revived expression of these platforms have been introduced with better and advanced features and add-ons. With all this progression, the teaching fraternity started practicing and has got accustomed with the online teaching-learning systems. Also, the students also started exploring the optimal utilization at one end, whereas, on the other side, they have tried the novel tricks to cheat and exploit the system. One of the upcoming challenges is to monitor and keep control on students during a live online class. Here, in this paper, a Smart Online Class Monitoring System (SOCMS) has been proposed to cease student’s non-responsive behavior during an ongoing online class. The proposed system offers a trick for teachers to enhance the responsiveness and hence the attentiveness of the students. The system proposes a suggestion list for the teachers during the live online classes, with the motive of covering all the students in a random, but non-repetitive pattern using Fisher-Yates algorithm. The system’s prototype has been developed using Python Programming language. The paper includes the results obtained from its implementation on a group of Undergraduate course students. The observations were noted and analyzed using SPSS statistical tool.

Examining Teachers' Use of Learning Information Systems (LIS) of the Basic Education Schools in the Philippines Using Structural Equation Modeling

The Learner Information System is an online service that the Department of Education in the Philippines used to manage learner's information and improve the collaboration of all personnel in the organization. However, there is a need to examine the user's actual use, attitude, and behavior towards the system and to understand the factors affecting its successful implementation to improve the system capabilities and cater teacher and learner increasing needs. Using the extended technology acceptance model (TAM), this work analyzed 127 datasets gathered from 45 public and private schools in the Philippines using structural equation modelling in partial least squares. The result shows that system quality and facilitating conditions are significant predictors of teachers' attitudes towards the system. Generally, all original constructs of TAM were found to be significant implying a positive acceptance of the Learner Information System. These results provide further evidence in understanding the user acceptance of ICT-based teaching-learning systems in the Philippines.

The Use of Active Methodologies for Teaching–Learning Systems in Telecommunications

This article discusses the adoption of the Problem Based Learning (PBL) and Project Based Learning (P2BL) approaches in the teaching/learning process of telecommunications. A computational environment was defined to combine these two approaches which focused on the teaching of courses that cover topics related to telecommunications systems. Newly graduated professionals face difficulties when entering the job market, as they have to deal with situations that are not experienced in the academic world. There is still a tendency to rely on traditional approaches for the teaching of telecommunications systems that have proved to be inefficient, as they are only concerned with content and not the applications that the student will require in the job market. The aim of this research is to investigate whether the adoption of PBL and P2BL in a computational environment can enhance student learning more effectively than the traditional teaching approach. This involved conducting an experiment in 7 undergraduate classes to compare the performance of the students that adopted PBL and P2BL with that of the students who were taught with the traditional approach. Data were collected on the grades obtained by the students in the courses and these were statistically analyzed. The results show that the adoption of PBL and P2BL led to the students achieving a 32% increase in performance. However, it was noted that the infrastructure of the institutions directly influences the way the approaches are adopted and, hence affects, the results.

Generación del Programa de Estudios “Diseño Mecatrónico de Precisión” del Instituto Tecnológico de Hermosillo, Bajo el Modelo Curricular Basado en Competencias

La demanda del mercado laboral dentro de la industria, en conjunto con el cambiante mercado globalizado, exigen cada vez más ingenieros con cualidades adaptables y cambiantes, sobre todo en sectores comerciales focalizados, donde los conocimientos técnicos y científicos son de alta importancia, formando al ingeniero, en un recurso humano de gran valor para el sector industrial. A nivel educativo, dentro de los Institutos Tecnológicos adscritos al Tecnológico Nacional de México, se buscan sistemas de enseñanza-aprendizaje que satisfagan las necesidades industriales, por lo que las academias trabajan en conjunto con el sector gobierno y el sector productivo para adecuar los modelos educativos en especialidades acordes a las necesidades del sector comercial regional y nacional. El objetivo de esta investigación es proyectar y elaborar la materia de “Diseño mecánico de precisión” para la especialidad de Ingeniería Mecatrónica del Instituto Tecnológico de Hermosillo, denominada “Diseño mecatrónico para la industria aeroespacial y automotriz”, con bases en el modelo de competencias y el análisis previo de las necesidades industriales.

LA UNIVERSIDAD EN LA ERA VIRTUAL Y EL DESARROLLO DE DISPOSITIVOS DE FORMACIÓN

Globalization and ICT revolution are two key factors that are transforming the traditional university. In answer to new social, economic and labor conditions, the University is adopting more flexible teaching concepts for a changing world. Thus, the increasing necessities of continuous formation have required the implementation of innovative educative strategies. Among these proposals, distance learning, using more flexible models and with increased technological support, has become a highly demanded option, especially by a sector of professionals who require updates and specialization of their education. The design, development and implementation of hybrid educative proposals (e-learning, b-learning, mobile-learning, etc.) has become an emergent specialty in both the academic and corporate environments. Lately, this movement provoked the specialization of actors in conception and design of training of formation proposals. The latter are construed as devices, that is integrated results of all the components required for the operation: administrative, academic physical and human resources. Under this setting, two fields of activity have appeared: “formation engineering” is concerned whit the design of a formation device in all its dimensions (political, economic, social, methodological and technical); “pedagogical engineering” is a more specialized field, concerned whit the educational-learning processes themselves. We hope in this work to provide teachers of diverse specialties whit conception and design tools for building, from a systemic vision, formation devices within a formal teaching-learning systems framework.

School achievement, social conditions and ethnicity: Immigrants’ children in basic schooling in Portugal

Family conditions, such as social class, ethnicity, or the educational capital within the family are significant criteria for social differentiation in teaching-learning systems, but how and to what extent do these characteristics influence the trajectories of pupils originating from migratory movement? The data presented here results from two research projects that analysed the school trajectory of pupils of immigrant descent in 2001 and 2008 in basic education (ISCED 1 and 2) in comparison with their native peers. The findings of both studies indicate that when socio-demographic variables are controlled, national origin has no greater impact on the school pathways of the pupils surveyed than other variables. In contrast, the educational qualifications of the pupils’ parents and their insertion in the social class structure play a far more important role in shaping school performance.

Conceptual Maps and Reasoning Based on Cases: A perspective for the Intelligents Teaching/Learning Systems

The use methods pedagogic with information technologies and communications produces a new quality that the tasks work favors of generating, broadcasting and to share the knowledge. Such is the case of the pedagogical fortress of the employment of the Conceptual Maps, which constitute a tool for the management of the knowledge, for the possibility that these offer of personalizing the learning, sharing knowledge, and to learn to learn. In this work a new approach to elaborate Intelligent Teaching-Learning Systems, where conceptual diagram techniques are combined and Artificial Intelligence, using the Cases Based Reasoning such as a theoretical framework for the modeling of the student. The proposed model has been implemented in the computational system HESEI, which has been applied in the decision making in task works of teaching/learning, for non skilled people in the field computer engineer.

Organizational schemata of e-portfolios for fostering higher-order thinking

The information technology of online e-portfolio systems have been widely used during the past several years along with the diffusion of electronic teaching-learning systems. However, for the time ...

¿ES NECESARIO PROFESIONALIZAR LA FIGURA DEL TUTOR DE ESPECIALISTAS EN FORMACIÓN SANITARIA?

El sistema de formación de especialistas sanitarios en nuestro país es suficientemente maduro, pero se ha de enfrentar a nuevos retos, como es el caso de la profesionalización del tutor de especialistas en formación. La actual normativa que regula la formación especializada atribuye importancia a esta figura pero apenas la perfila. La gran transformación estructural, replantea la necesidad de concebir nuevos profesionales a los que se les pueda atribuir competencias no requeridas hasta el momento. Para ayudar a la adaptación de todos estos cambios, es preciso nuevos sistemas de enseñanza-aprendizaje basados en competencias que faciliten un aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida, para contribuir al nacimiento del profesional requerido y demandado en el siglo XXI. Somos conscientes que ni las organizaciones sanitarias ni el perfil del profesional de la salud han quedado al margen de las nuevas exigencias del entorno, por lo que nos preguntamos si el tutor de especialistas en formación está preparado para asumir estas responsabilidades, siendo necesario y prioritario su profesionalización.

웹상에서 운영되는 원격교원연수 시스템

인터넷을 통한 웹 기반 교수-학습 시스템은 상호작용 증진을 통한 학습자 위주의 교육환경으로 지속적인 변화를 지향해 왔다. 그 결과 학습자는 시간과 공간의 제약에서 벗어나 다양한 교육정보를 접할 수 있는 기회를 가질 수 있게 되었다. 결과적으로 인터넷의 발달은 교육환경의 변화를 가져왔다. 인터넷을 통한 웹 기반 원격교육은 이제 교육의 여러 분야에 폭넓게 적용되고 있다. 사실, 인터넷을 통한 원격교육은 이제 새로운 교육패러다임으로 자리를 잡았다. 본 논문에서는 교사를 대상으로 하는 원격 교육 시스템에 한정하여 시스템 개발에서 운영에 이르기까지의 모든 과정에 대한 경제적, 교육적 효율성 확보를 목적으로 하였다. 따라서 시스템 개발에서는 주요 모듈의 컴포넌트화를 시도하여 재사용성 증대를 통한 설계 기간 및 비용의 감소를 이끌어 내어 개발의 효율성을 높이고, 구성주의 원리를 교육학적 기반으로 함으로써 교육의 효율성을 최대로 끌어올릴 수 있도록 설계하였다. Web-based teaching-learning systems through the internet has continuously pursued the learner-centered educational environment by promoting the interaction between leachers and students. As a result, learners haute become free of the limit of time and space and have more ways to have access to education information more easily. Consequently, the development of the internet has resulted in the changes of the educational environment. Web-based distance education through the internet is now expected to be applied widely in various fields of education. In fact, distance education through the internet has taken place in a new education paradigm. The purpose of this paper is to promote the economical and educational efficiency of all the procedures from developing the system to operating in a remote training cyber system. Therefore in developing the system, we designed it to raise the efficiency by making main modulo into components and by reducing the terms and cost by reuse. Also lute meant to raise the efficiency of education by applying constructivism as an educational basic.

A study of the attitudes of the foundation staff of a new medical faculty to problem-based learning

The characteristics of the foundation staff of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) University Faculty of Medicine numbering 18 were studied using open-ended questions in an interview setting. All were experienced academically with mean total years of experience being more than 20 years. The mean age of 51.7 years indicated that the majority of staff interviewed were in the latter stage of their academic career. Although one of the criteria for accepting candidates was flexibility in their outlook to new teaching learning systems and positive attitudes to problem-based learning (PBL), only seven understood PBL and five were openly hostile to the system. The reasons for joining the Faculty were protean, but most saw the job as being challenging in nature and a change from routine. The question is raised whether the selection procedure was appropriate and whether more stringent criteria might have been applied, to have included attitudinal aspects in addition to the academic achievements of the candidates, for the rightly motivated and oriented individual to be appointed.