A methodological approach to identify teacher's ICT competencies in online learning environments in Higher Education

Aquest article pretén descriure el procés metodològic d'identificació i mesurament de les competències TIC dels professors i com a formadors en les TIC en un entorn d'aprenentatge en línia en l'Educació Superior portat a terme en el marc del Projecte Europeu Elene-TLC.La revisió de la recerca en les competències en línia del professor demostra que, en primer lloc, el mètode més utilitzat per a identificar aquestes competències és el focus group. En segon lloc, la tècnica Delphi és la tècnica més utilitzada per reunir el consens d'experts sobre quines són les competències principals per al professor en línia entre els que s'indiquen.La proposta metodològica descrita en aquest document consisteix en la creació de 7 grups de discussió en línia, l'objectiu dels quals era identificar les competències formatives dels professors en línia i les dels professos en línia. La llista de competències obtingudes posteriorment es va oferir als experts europeus que participaven en l'aplicació de la tècnica Delphi. A aquests experts se'ls va demanar que ordenessin les competències d'acord amb el seu grau d'importància.Els resultats mostren que els grups de discussió en línia i el mètode Delphi són les metodologies apropiades per a identificar les competències TIC dels professors universitaris en els entorns d'aprenentatge en línia.

Metacognitive presence in asynchronous online learning environments : self, mutual and hetero-regulation

Peer-reviewed

Intelligent agent supported personalization for virtual learning environments

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) are computer-based online learning environments, which provide opportunities for online learners to learn at the time and location of their choosing, whilst allowing interactions and encounters with other online learners, as well as affording access to a wide range of resources. They have the capability of reaching learners in remote areas around the country or across country boundaries at very low cost. Personalized VLEs are those VLEs that provide a set of personalization functionalities, such as personalizing learning plans, learning materials, tests, and are capable of initializing the interaction with learners by providing advice, necessary instant messages, etc., to online learners. One of the major challenges involved in developing personalized VLEs is to achieve effective personalization functionalities, such as personalized content management, learner model, learner plan and adaptive instant interaction. Autonomous intelligent agents provide an important technology for accomplishing personalization in VLEs. A number of agents work collaboratively to enable personalization by recognizing an individual's eLeaming pace and reacting correspondingly. In this research, a personalization model has been developed that demonstrates dynamic eLearning processes; secondly, this study proposes an architecture for PVLE by using intelligent decision-making agents' autonomous, pre-active and proactive behaviors. A prototype system has been developed to demonstrate the implementation of this architecture. Furthemore, a field experiment has been conducted to investigate the performance of the prototype by comparing PVLE eLearning effectiveness with a non-personalized VLE. Data regarding participants' final exam scores were collected and analyzed. The results indicate that intelligent agent technology can be employed to achieve personalization in VLEs, and as a consequence to improve eLeaming effectiveness dramatically.

Personal knowledge development in online learning:a model for measuring externalisation, combination and internalisation

This paper presents a model for measuring personal knowledge development in online learning environments. It is based on Nonaka‘s SECI model of organisational knowledge creation. It is argued that Socialisation is not a relevant mode in the context of online learning and was therefore not covered in the measurement instrument. Therefore, the remaining three of SECI‘s knowledge conversion modes, namely Externalisation, Combination, and Internalisation were used and a measurement instrument was created which also examines the interrelationships between the three modes. Data was collected using an online survey, in which online learners report on their experiences of personal knowledge development in online learning environments. In other words, the instrument measures the magnitude of online learners‘ Externalisation and combination activities as well as their level of internalisation, which is the outcome of their personal knowledge development in online learning.

Learning networks and moodle use in online courses: a social network analysis study

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Ciências da Educação Especialidade em Tecnologias, Redes e Multimédia na Educação e Formação

Identifying pedagogical, technological and organizational barriers in virtual learning environments

Virtual learning environments are online spaces where learners interact with other learners, teachers, resources and the environment in itself. Although technology is meant to enhance the learning process, there are important issues regarding pedagogical and organizational aspects that must be addressed. In this paper we review the barriers detected in a virtual university which exclusively uses Internet as the main channel of communication, with no face-to-face requirements exceptthose related to final evaluation.

Facebook & BlackBoard: comparative view of learning environments

For several years, online educational tools such as Blackboard have been used by Universities to foster collaborative learning in an online setting. Such tools tend to be implemented in a top-down fashion, with the institution providing the tool to the students and instructing them to use it. Recently, however, a more informal, bottom up approach is increasingly being employed by the students themselves in the form of social networks such as Facebook. With over 9,000 registered Facebook users at the beginning of this study, rising to over 12,000 at the University of Reading alone, Facebook is becoming the de facto social network of choice for higher education students in the UK, and there was increasing anecdotal evidence that students were actively learning via Facebook rather than through BlackBoard. To test the validity of these anecdotes, a questionnaire was sent to students, asking them about their learning experiences via BlackBoard and Facebook. The results show that students are making use of the tools available to them even when there is no formal academic content, and that increased use of a social networking tool is correlated with a reported increase in learning as a result of that use.

Virtual Learning Environments In Faculties Of Education In Spain: Changes On Student Attitude

This paper presents some results of a R+D project entitled “e-Learning system for Practical Training of University students in Education Faculties (ForELearn)”, developed in Spain by the Universidad de Granada and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education. In a first phase, through the use of AulaWeb Learning Management System, a set of adaptations and improvements of this software application have been done for the design and development of an experimental course of Practicum supervision. Next, the implementation of this course by means of a group of face to face and online seminars provides experimental data for the analysis and discussion about the point of view of users (preservice teachers) that have tracked their practice supervision with AulaWeb.

Inclusion of immersive virtual learning environments and visual control systems to support the learning of students with Asperger syndrome

This paper presents the use of immersive virtual reality systems in the educational intervention with Asperger students. The starting points of this study are features of these students' cognitive style that requires an explicit teaching style supported by visual aids and highly structured environments. The proposed immersive virtual reality system, not only to assess the student's behavior and progress, but also is able to adapt itself to the student's specific needs. Additionally, the immersive reality system is equipped with sensors that can determine certain behaviors of the students. This paper determines the possible inclusion of immersive virtual reality as a support tool and learning strategy in these particular students' intervention. With this objective two task protocols have been defined with which the behavior and interaction situations performed by participant students are recorded. The conclusions from this study talks in favor of the inclusion of these virtual immersive environments as a support tool in the educational intervention of Asperger syndrome students as their social competences and executive functions have improved.

Validation of a Spanish version of the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) in Spain

The aim of this study was to examine the validity of the Spanish version of the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (Sp-DELES). This instrument assesses students’ perceptions of virtual learning environments using six scales: Instructor Support, Student Interaction and Collaboration, Personal Relevance, Authentic Learning, Active Learning, and Autonomy. Further, the Sp-DELES includes an additional scale that assesses students’ Satisfaction with their classes. The original DELES has been used in at least 27 independent studies with strong reliability and validity. For this study, we sampled 265 students from the University of Alicante enrolled in various hybrid and distance education courses taught by the Department of Health Psychology. We analysed the Sp-DELES for validity using principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation, and for reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. The Sp-DELES exhibited good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha for the scales ranging from 0.86 to 0.97) and the original six-factor structure was replicated and accounted for 72.9 % of the total variance. Overall the results are consistent with those of the original English-language version of the instrument. The Sp-DELES has proven to be a reliable and valid instrument for assessing psychosocial learning environments in tertiary-level hybrid and distance-education settings.

Applying Enterprise: Active Learning Environments for Business Higher National Diploma Students

This article details an approach to teaching entrepreneurship to Higher National Diploma (HND) students that combines lecture-based and experiential learning processes to increase student learning, comprehension, and entrepreneurial skills. A UK university redesigned an entrepreneurship course to have students design and implement business plans for a pop-up shop and an event in the local community, while working closely with instructors and outside stakeholders. The lectures used in the lessons were designed to complement the enterprise activities and be immediately applied in group work settings. Data was collected from student reflections and analyzed against instructor reflections to highlight both the success and challenges of this approach, as well as any areas of dissonance between student and instructor observations. While literature on the benefits of active and experiential learning processes are highlighted in the literature, this article examines these teaching methods specifically in a HND context, an area in which research on the benefits of these teaching methods for developing entrepreneurial students and for developing students prepared for undergraduate education has been limited.

Perceived learning environments and metacognitive strategy knowledge at the upper secondary school level

There is evidence that students benefit from teachers’ explicit fostering of metacognitive strategy knowledge (MSK). However, there is insufficient understanding about the effect of implicit promotion of MSK in regular school instruction. This study investigates the relationship between perceived characteristics of learning environments (social climate, support, autonomy, self-reflection) and students’ MSK. A representative cohort of students (Nt1 = 1,272/Nt2 = 1,126) in Grades 10 and 11 at schools at the upper secondary education level (ISCED Level 3A) in Switzerland participated in this two-wave longitudinal study. Multilevel analysis showed effects on both the individual and the class level. Students who experienced higher social integration showed a higher extent of MSK at the beginning of the school year than students who experienced less social integration. Perceived autonomy was also positively related to students’ MSK on the individual level. In contrast, the results showed a negative relationship between perceived self-reflection and students’ MSK. On the class level, there was a negative relationship between self-reflection and students’ MSK. Teachers’ support did not correlate with students’ MSK on either the individual or the class level. Implications of these results for education and further studies are discussed. (DIPF/Orig.)

The space for social media in structured online learning

In this paper, we explore the benefits of using social media in an online educational setting, with a particular focus on the use of Facebook and Twitter by participants in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed to enable educators to learn about the Carpe Diem learning design process. We define social media as digital social tools and environments located outside of the provision of a formal university-provided Learning Management System. We use data collected via interviews and surveys with the MOOC participants as well as social media postings made by the participants throughout the MOOC to offer insights into how participants’ usage and perception of social media in their online learning experiences differed and why. We identified that, although some participants benefitted from social media by crediting it, for example, with networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities, others objected or refused to engage with social media, perceiving it as a waste of their time. We make recommendations for the usage of social media for educational purposes within MOOCs and formal digital learning environments.