Technology Enhanced Learning Tools Research Articles

The rhetoric and reality of technology-enhanced learning developments in UK higher education: reflections on recent UCISA research findings (2012–2016)

ABSTRACTThis article reviews the investment that UK higher education institutions have made in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) services in recent years, and considers the impact this has had on academic practice. Drawing on UCISA survey and case study research, our analysis shows that whilst the range of centrally supported TEL tools and services in support of teaching and learning has increased across the sector, evidence of transformational change in pedagogic practice through their use has been harder to discern. We observe an increasing number of TEL systems that instructors are being encouraged to engage with as part of their academic practice; however, there have been limited changes in the mode of course delivery, with content-focused and supplementary uses of the web still very much in vogue. The evidence suggests a gap between the institutional rhetoric on TEL developments and the reality of academic practice across the sector. Using Barnett’s “conditions of flexibility” as a frame of reference [Barnett, R. (2014). Conditions of flexibility: Securing a more responsive higher education system. York: The Higher Education Academy. Retrieved from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/conditions_of_flexibility_securing_a_more_responsive_higher_education_system.pdf], the article discusses the factors behind this mismatch, exploring how a balanced institutional focus on service development and academic support may be needed to foster transformative and sustainable changes in the way that TEL tools are employed in course design and delivery.

Student use and perception of technology enhanced learning in a mass lecture knowledge-rich domain first year undergraduate module

The purpose of this study was to examine student use and perceptions of technology enhanced learning tools (TELTs), including their value for learning. Students enrolled onto a 12-week undergraduate science module had access to four TELTs each week, (i) a recording of the lecture (Panopto™), (ii) an animated mini review of the lecture (ShowMe), (iii) a multiple choice quiz hosted on Blackboard® (MCQ), and (iv) a module Twitter feed. Ninety-five students completed a survey at the end of the module, which included quantitative and qualitative questions, to examine whether they perceived the TELT to be useful for their learning. Analysis of the quantitative data suggest that Twitter was used significantly less than the other three TELTs (p < 0.001) with less people agreeing that it helped their learning (p < 0.001), whilst ShowMe and MCQ had a greater occurrence of an ‘agree’ rating compared to Twitter and Panopto (p ≤ 0.002). A thematic analysis of the qualitative responses identified assessment as a common theme across all four TELTs, being a positive factor for Panopto, ShowMe and MCQ, but negative for Twitter. Students highlighted ShowMe as being particularly useful for simplifying information. Based on this study TELTs similar to ShowMe (i.e. animations) are most recommended as this was one of the two highly rated TELTs (alongside MCQ), but may have more potential for crossover with other subjects, and students found it useful for more than just assessment.

Technology enhanced learning in programming courses – international perspective

Technology enhanced learning (TEL) is increasingly influencing university education, mainly in overcoming disadvantages of direct instruction teaching approaches, and encouraging creativity, problem solving and critical thinking in student-centered, interactive learning environments. In this paper, experiences from object-oriented programming (OOP) courses that are taught in three institutions from three different European countries are presented and compared. The courses are based on Java and are delivered in the second year of studies, after students have attended an introductory programming course. The emphasis is given on TEL approaches and accompanying tools and services, focusing mainly on Learning Management Systems (LMS). Our students completed an appropriate questionnaire to evaluate the importance and utilization of TEL services that are used or planned to be used at the programming courses. The results of statistical analysis of collected data show that students from all three institutional groups consider organizational services provided by TEL tools as much or very much important in their education, while communicational services are rarely used. Using non-parametric statistical tests we studied the similarities and differences in perceived importance of TEL services among students from different institutional groups.

Refocusing institutional TEL provision on the learner

UK higher education institutions have invested significantly in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) services over the last 15 years. The UCISA TEL surveys have shown how this investment has focused on establishing core infrastructure and services to students to satisfy consumer expectations, supporting greater efficiencies in the management and control of learning processes. However, new developments in UK government policy may encourage UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to refocus their attention on the impact of TEL on student learning, with a greater emphasis on evidence-based practice in the use of TEL tools. This paper discusses the prospects for change in the use of TEL tools and services to support this new agenda.

Knowledge Construction in Computer Science and Engineering when Learning Through Making

This paper focuses on a design based research study about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) learning by making through collaboration and production. This study examines learning by making by students to explore STEM using a constructionist approach with a particular focus on computer science and engineering. The use of IoT as a technology enhanced learning (TEL) tool created the learning conditions to be studied: (a) collaborative: no one person had the knowledge to complete the project alone, (b) problem-based: no off the shelf solution was used, and (c) multidisciplinary: the learning context pushed the boundaries across the subjects. The study investigated the learning conditions and indicators of collaboration and production taking place when learning about STEM. The results were used to inform the design of effective data analytics and visualization tools for the PELARS project to advance practice-based learning activities in STEM teaching. However, more specifically, the findings provide insight into the knowledge construction process when learning through making in complex environments. These insights illustrate the combined pedagogical value of collaboration and production supporting the multidisciplinary learning opportunities. The importance of community knowledge construction and its relationship to the pedagogical approach is examined. The significance of these findings in the context of IoT TEL tools in education is explored.

Synthesizing Technological and Pedagogical Knowledge in Learning Design

Based on a design rational for constructivist pre-service teacher training on Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), in this paper the authors consider teachers as designers of innovative digital educational content. Under this lens, the selection of appropriate technologies is considered as a threefold process that concerns the availability of technological tools for implementing a virtual classroom that facilitates communication, collaboration, and administration, the enabling technologies for serving specific learning purposes, and the technologies or tools that support trainees to design effective TEL-based courses. A number of questions emerge as the authors are looking for the most appropriate technologies for cultivating certain competences related to class operation, learning design and student engagement in a constructive manner. As a first step, in this paper, they investigate how trainees combine particular technologies with pedagogical tools to cultivate specific competences i.e. certain types of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Lastly, factors that trainees perceive as influential when adopting TEL tools in practice are revealed by their study.

Clickers in the classroom: a business professor's adoption of a classroom response system

As a technology-enhanced instructional tool, clickers have been used in a variety of contexts to enrich learners' learning experience and improve their academic performance. However, despite its potential utility, many faculty members in higher education have not adopted this technology even when it is available, nor used it in a pedagogically sound manner. This paper presents a qualitative case study exploring why and how a business faculty member adopted clickers and integrated them into her classroom teaching, the challenges she encountered, and the impact of clicker use on her teaching and on her students' academic performance. This study identified contextual factors that may contribute to or interfere with the adoption of technologies in higher education. The authors also provide insights that might be beneficial to administrators in higher education, to faculty members who are interested in adopting clickers or who are using them, and to researchers in investigating pedagogy related to technology-enhanced learning tools.

Attributes of Engineers and Engineering Education for the 21st Century World

21st Century is witnessing enrollment of Net generation (~ 19 years old)of studentsinto a variety of engineering programs. They have diverse learning aspirations and needs. They wish to learn at their own pace and comfort with peers while leveraging the technology enhanced learning tools. They are open to diverse views, flexible careers, research and innovation careers, and entrepreneurship. They are aware that their workplace will bedifferent from the earlier generations as the businesses leverage supply chains spanning the world and compete to differentiate in the local markets. 21st Century workplaces seek employees with cross-cultures work abilities and global knowledge and experience as they need to interact and move internationally. The Net generation will live longer than earlier generations, and need tobe economically active for longer periods. Learning life-long and regularly upgrading skills and knowledge is the new normal. The Net generation of students have a choice of diverse engineering education providers such as public, private, not-for-profit, for-profit, online, part-time, international branch campuses, and their combinations. They have access to worldwide comparison of engineering schools at the disciplinary level, internationally recognized and accredited engineering programs, and opportunities for the global experience at home and abroad. They are comfortable with digital technology and prefer blended learning methods. Recent decades also saw widening of engineering field covering many new disciplines which flourished at the interfaces with other disciplines. The strong demand for professional qualifications led to the scenario of undergraduate engineering education being akin to liberal arts education with diverse career options. Yet, according to the several mediareports, theemployers are able to find only a fraction of engineering graduates with requisite knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes suitable for employment. In other words there is a need to rethink the way the students are inspired and developed, faculty members are prepared, and curriculum and pedagogy are tailored to the needs of the 21st Century workplaces and new generation of students. Systematic engineering education research and thought leadership is needed to produce globally competent engineers. Sharing of best practices and continual improvement in all aspects of engineering education is desired for preparing engineers for the 21st Century. Authors' affiliated institutions implemented many aspects of engineering education captured in this paper.

IX International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation REV 2012

The ninth edition of the International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV) [1] was held at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Deusto, Bilbao (Spain), from the 4th to the 6th of July, 2012. A world-class research community in the subject of remote and virtual laboratories joined the event. The publication in the Latin American Learning Technology Journal (IEEE-RITA: REVISTA IBEROAMERICANA DE TECNOLOGIAS DEL APRENDIZAJE) of three selected papers written by Ibero-American authors evidences that this circle attends to the design and deployment of Technology-Enhanced Learning tools supporting experimental activities in Science, Engineering, Technology and Maths (STEM). The first contribution, entitled “Performing Real Experiments from a Remote Learning Management System,” written by Argentine researchers, describes the integration of remote experiments in the area of electronic physics in a Learning Management System hosted at the National University of Rosario, Argentina, and its subsequent use. The second contribution, entitled “Adaptation Model of Mobile Remote Experiments for Basic Schools,” by Brazilian and Portuguese researchers, describes the use of simple remotely-accessible physical experiments in an attractive scenario for young Brazilians, in STEM areas, through a tripartite initiative (University—Business—School) funded by the National Scientific and Technological Development Council (CNPq) of Brazil. Finally, the third contribution, entitled “Adapting Remote Labs to Learning Scenarios: Case Studies Using VISIR and RemotElectLab,” developed by Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish researchers, describes the long road that remote laboratories have yet to go to reproduce, as closely as possible, the experimental scenarios that occur in a real laboratory in the context of higher education and in the area of electrical and electronic circuits. Finally, we would like to emphasize something written in the last paper when describing and using remote laboratories: that only an effective dialogue between all stakeholders (technology, pedagogy, engineers, teachers and students) allows the consolidation and progress of this educational technology

Charting the development of technology-enhanced learning developments across the UK higher education sector: a longitudinal perspective (2001–2012)

This article reviews key findings from six surveys of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) across the UK higher education (HE) sector, conducted by Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association in association with Jisc. Updating the findings presented by Jenkins, Browne, Walker, and Hewitt [2010. The development of technology enhanced learning: Findings from a 2008 survey of UK higher education institutions, Interactive Learning Environments. First published on: 22 January 2010 (iFirst)], the article reports on the emerging and planned patterns of TEL across the UK HE sector over the last decade. Our analysis shows that against the backdrop of Higher Education Funding Council for England capital funding, institutions have made considerable investments in technology and infrastructure to support learning and teaching – specifically in the domain of learning management and assessment systems. While the drivers for TEL development have consistently focused on enhancing teaching and learning over the years, the subject of this investment has been directed to the implementation of enterprise-wide systems to manage and control learning processes, delivering efficiencies of scale and standardised learning experiences through centrally managed solutions, rather than support for student-controlled tools. In contrast, the diffusion of technologies supporting collaborative learning and knowledge sharing has been more a feature of local TEL provision, as evidenced through the informal learning practice of students and departmental projects. The evolution of course delivery models and pedagogic developments supported through the use of technology have been noticeably much slower to realise; growth in “web-dependent” rather than “supplementary” course design models has been quite limited across the sector and we have observed negligible growth in distance learning provision over this period. The evidence suggests that challenges remain in developing course delivery models which focus on active student learning, maximising the opportunities that web and mobile technologies now offer for interactive student-centred learning design. We speculate that the recent upsurge of interest in Massive Open Online Courses may act as a catalyst in this respect, in driving campus-based courses to embrace new learning models supported by TEL tools.

Content, Context &amp; Connectivity Persuasive Interplay

The aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between content, context and connectivity and suggesting a model of Dynamic Interplay. This is done in relation to a specific learning environment concerning cultural mediation, in casu the Kaj Munk Case of the EuroPLOT-project (an EU-supported research project under EACEA). In the development of this project several categories of content have been implemented in technology enhanced learning tools. These have been designed to support learning in different contexts and eventually the role of the connectivity of these learning objects and tools is discussed. Focus is here on The Kaj Munk Study Edition, The Conceptual Pond, Immersive Layers Design, and Generative Learning Objects (GLOs) which are applications affiliated with the Munk case. This paper explores the persuasive potential of the interplay between the different applications for the benefit of learning and reflection and a model of Dynamic Interplay is introduced. This is done with a primary inspiration from rhetoric particularly in the shape of the Aptum model and a focus on kairos. Possible benefits of this approach are discussed and several questions for further research are suggested.

Usage of technology enhanced learning tools and organizational change perception

This paper presents an analysis of organizational changes perceived by the employees in the organizations where Technology Enhanced Learning was facilitated by tools such as wiki, (we)blog, the Internet forum and the social network, practice often considered as Elearning 2.0. Our research focuses on the technologically advanced organizations, leaders in the CT and IS adoption. We specifically observe the perception of influence on the organizational structure, organizational culture and the knowledge management processes in the organization. Our findings are that the TEL tools are perceived to have a noteworthy impact on the organizational change in the three mentioned areas, and that the perception of change significantly differs in dependence on whether the employees are regular or are not regular users of organizational structure and knowledge management processes.

EduSHARE: a peer to peer document sharing system for obtaining adaptive learning procedures

Technology enhanced learning tools are widely used to support learning process activities. The most diffuse technology in this sense is represented by e-learning web platforms that provide remote access to course documents and services. While e-learning should be considered a user-centric paradigm by following the development of each individual task; however, most recent learning practices are still conveniently collaborative, in which the focus is on interacting and sharing the most profitable information for a scheduled goal lesson. This article presents EduSHARE, a P2P distributed learning system based on a group-based file sharing extended with dynamic test modules aimed to be integrated in a course to cope with need to make exercises in a dynamic way enforcing students to cooperate better. This approach meets the recent trend of collaborative learning system for integrating enhanced learning process and student-teacher interaction that are empowered by the advancement of technology. The goal is to reach an improved interactivity between several actors playing in a common lesson scenario; we also expect an increased student concentration due to a more interesting and interacting lesson.