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Social anxiety in digital learning environments: an international perspective and call to actionSocial anxiety in digital learning environments: an international perspective and call to action

The research focused on digital learning environments has identified various challenges for learners, such as technical problems, lack of community, motivation, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and social anxiety. Social anxiety is conceptualized as an emotional disorder that may impede achievement in higher education. The project reported here investigates N = 666 students' social anxiety in digital learning environments at four higher education institutions located in Australia, Germany, Latvia, and Turkey. This range of contexts allowed the research to cover a wide variety of cultural and institutional idiosyncrasies. Findings revealed different levels of social anxiety in higher education digital learning environments across countries and their cultural contexts. In addition, gender plays a significant role in social anxiety for peer interactions with female students reporting higher social anxiety than male students. The findings suggest that it is worth tertiary educators pausing to consider social anxiety's role in reducing interactions within digital learning environments. Additional research is required to establish the causes of social anxiety in digital learning environments and, as a result, to develop strategies to minimise its effect.

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Going online?Going online? Does transferring to online university increase the likelihood of graduation among students from lower social background?

The increase in university participation has led to greater complexity in terms of students' trajectories, with the option of changing degree course or higher education institution or, more recently, the mode of study (face-to-face and online learning). These transitions can be strategic moves that facilitate greater continuity in educational trajectories and increase equity within the education system. Online universities offer greater flexibility in terms of time and location, providing new opportunities for students with specific profiles to pursue higher education. This article aims to delve into the complex trajectories of change and to analyse whether there are differences in educational outcomes based on students' social backgrounds. Using registry data from the Catalan university system (n = 42,370), we identify and characterise the trajectories of change and analyse the effect of the interaction between them and social origin on educational outcomes. The results indicate that students from lower social backgrounds and those who also work are most likely to transition to virtual education. However, social background continues to have an effect on the probability of graduating, dropping out or pursuing further studies.

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Digital literacies, social media, and undergraduate learningDigital literacies, social media, and undergraduate learning: what do students think they need to know?

This research addresses an identified need to further understand digital literacies (DL) and whether undergraduate students view DL as being important in their lives and in their learning. Using a cross-sectional survey sent to a stratified random sample of 2500 undergraduates representative of the overall student population at a medium-sized Canadian undergraduate university (survey response rate of 19.8%, N = 496), we explored the relationships between social media and digital literacies, particularly in different disciplinary contexts. We also explored the ways in which students report using social media in their university learning, showing that students value social media for collaboration, discussion, information finding and sharing, and practise activities related to their learning. Additionally, we examined the importance students place on DL, and how they perceive and rate their own abilities with digital literacies across three domains: procedural and technical, cognitive, and sociocultural. Findings illustrate an observable gap between the high importance that students place on digital literacies (including DL for social media) in their learning and their lives and the lack of coverage students reported receiving about these topics in their undergraduate education. Based on the study’s findings, we discuss the specific ways that those in the higher education community can address this gap by engaging with and fostering development of digital literacies within specific disciplinary and professional contexts, and in interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary learning settings across the curriculum.

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Assessing digital competence and its relationship with the socioeconomic level of Chilean university studentsAssessing digital competence and its relationship with the socioeconomic level of Chilean university students

Digital competence (DC) is one of the key aspects in citizen development in the digital age. The DC is particularly important in forming university students and future teachers. This article presents the main results of a study to evaluate DC and its relationship with the socioeconomic level of first-year students of pedagogy in three Chilean public universities, located in the north, center, and south of the country. A quantitative research methodology was used, with a sample of 817 students, the data were collected through the DIGCOMP-PED evaluation instrument, which evaluates DC development using the DIGCOMP framework. The results were analyzed at the general and socioeconomic level on the variables of the educational establishment where they attended high school and the territorial area of the university they attended. The main results indicate that the level of DC achievement is intermediate, the areas with the highest levels of achievement were “network security” and “online communication and collaboration.” On the other hand, the lowest levels of achievement were reached in the areas “information and digital literacy,” “digital content creation,” and “problem solving.” The level of DC is higher among students of private establishments and those who attend universities located in the central area.

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The university students’ self-regulated effort, flexibility and satisfaction in distance education linkThe university students’ self-regulated effort, flexibility and satisfaction in distance education

Distance education offers flexible learning opportunities in terms of time, place and learning speed to teachers and students through internet technologies. However, the learning opportunities provided in distance education environments require students to act more autonomously and take more responsibility for regulating their learning processes to achieve their learning goals. For this reason, it is crucial to reveal the relationships between flexibility, self-regulated effort and satisfaction factors to provide efficient and effective learning environments in distance education. Accordingly, within the scope of this study, it is aimed to investigate university students’ perceptions of flexibility, self-regulated effort and satisfaction with the distance education process, and their views on distance education. Survey research was used as the research method in the study. The study sample consisted of 1760 university students studying at 28 different universities. Data were analysed using t-test, ANOVA, and regression methods. As a result of the study, male students were more satisfied with distance education than female students, and education faculty students had the highest level of satisfaction. In addition, self-regulated effort and flexibility variables were significant factors affecting students’ satisfaction towards distance education. Furthermore, the advantages and problems of distance education and suggestions for future distance learning environments were presented in the light of students views. Finally, the study’s implications and various recommendations for practitioners and researchers were discussed in detail.

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New Content ItemFlipped classroom (FC) approaches have gotten substantial attention in the last decade because they have a potential to stimulate student engagement as well as active and collaborative learning. The FC is generally defined as a strategy that flips the traditional education setting, i.e., the information transmission component of a traditional face-to-face lecture is moved out of class time. The FC relies on technology and is therefore suitable for online or blended learning, which were predominant forms of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020–July 2021). In this paper we present a systematic literature review (SLR) of studies that covered online FC approaches in higher education during the pandemic. We analyzed 205 publications in total and 18 in detail. Our research questions were related to the main findings about the success of implementation of online FC and recommendations for future research. The findings indicated that those who had used FC approaches in face-to-face or blended learning environments more successfully continued to use them in online environments than those who had not used it before. The SLR opened possible questions for future research, such as the effectiveness of the FC for different courses and contexts, the cognitive and emotional aspects of student engagement, and students’ data protection. It pointed to the need to examine different aspects of online delivery of the FC more comprehensively, and with more research rigor.

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New Content ItemIncreasingly, among international organizations concerned with unemployment rates and industry demands, there is an emphasis on the need to improve graduates’ employability skills and the transparency of mechanisms for their recognition. This research presents the Employability Skills Micro-credentialing (ESMC) methodology, designed under the EPICA Horizon 2020 (H2020) project and tested at three East African universities, and shows how it fosters pedagogical innovation and promotes employability skills integration and visibility. The methodology, supported by a competency-based ePortfolio and a digital micro-credentialing system, was evaluated using a mixed-method design, combining descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis to capture complementary stakeholder perspectives. The study involved the participation of 13 lecturers, 169 students, and 24 employers. The results indicate that the ESMC methodology is a promising approach for supporting students in their transition from academia to the workplace. The implementation of the methodology and the involvement of employers entails rethinking educational practices and academic curricula to embed employability skills. It enables all actors to broaden their understanding of the relationship between higher education and the business sector and to sustain visibility, transparency, and reliability of the recognition process. These findings indicate that there are favourable conditions in the region for the adoption of the approach, which is a meaningful solution for the stakeholder community to address the skills gap.

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New Content ItemThe use of system dynamics as a learning tool for developing sustainable energy strategies and environmental education has advanced in recent years with the availability of new modelling software and webtools. Among the existing models, we highlight the online 2050 Calculators, which aim at simulating scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions, energy planning, sustainable land use, and food consumption. The objective of this study is to assess the available calculators and their contribution to an interdisciplinary education via systems thinking. We carried out a review of the existing models worldwide and ran some of the tools with students from three different postgraduate programmes at master’s level at Imperial College London (United Kingdom) and IFP School (France), whilst also assessing their individual views afterwards. The assessments were conducted once a year during three subsequent years: 2019, 2020, and 2021. The results are discussed under the epistemology of critical pedagogy, showing that the use of webtools, such as the 2050 Calculators, can significantly contribute to the students’ environmental awareness and political engagement, providing important lessons about the use of system dynamics for policy and science education.

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New Content ItemThe rise of online modes of content delivery, termed e-learning, has increased student convenience and provided geographically remote students with more options for tertiary education. However, its efficacy relies upon student access to suitable technology and the internet, and the quality of the online course material. With the COVID-19 outbreak, education providers worldwide were forced to turn to e-learning to retain their student base and allow them to continue learning through the pandemic. However, in geographically remote, developing nations, many students may not have access to suitable technology or internet connections. Hence it is important to understand the potential of e-learning to maintain equitable access to education in such situations. This study found the majority (88%) of commencing students at the University of the South Pacific owned at least one ICT device and had access to the internet. Similarly, most students had adequate to strong ICT skills and a positive attitude toward e-learning. These attitudes among the student cohort, in conjunction with the previous experience of The University of the South Pacific in distance education, are likely to have contributed to its relatively successful transition from face-to-face to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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New Content ItemThis qualitative study examined how teachers fostered student engagement in blended learning (BL), i.e., blended, blended online, and blended synchronous courses that combine synchronous and asynchronous activities. Twenty semi-structured interviews with teachers in various disciplines, at the undergraduate or graduate level in four universities, were conducted and analyzed using an inductive approach. Therefore, the study proposed a broad and comprehensive picture of teachers’ strategies to enhance student engagement in BL, that were classified in three meta-categories concerning (i) the course structure and pace; (ii) the selection of teaching and learning activities; and (iii) the teacher’s role and course relationships. Strategies were also linked with student engagement dimensions (behavioral, emotional, cognitive), whenever possible. The findings particularly emphasized the importance of a well-structured and -paced course, fully exploiting and integrating synchronous and asynchronous modes of BL. Clearly communicating how the course would unfold and corresponding expectations as well as establishing trusting relationships at the beginning of the semester also appeared as key to foster student engagement in BL. The use of various digital tools was also highlighted to promote student behavioral and emotional engagement at the undergraduate level, whereas cognitive and emotional engagement of graduate students was mainly targeted through experience-sharing and learning co-construction between students.

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New Content ItemIn higher education, one commonly used teaching approach that is intended to develop deep learning is that of the ‘Oxford’ tutorial—a personalized Socratic approach in which an instructor discusses course-related issues with a handful of students. Even though this conventional tutorial model is well supported in the literature, it may be neglected by research-driven academics and is expensive to operate. The latter issue has placed tutorials in the spotlight because higher education institutions are facing huge funding cuts worldwide. In light of these problems, a scoping review was conducted to explore financially viable alternatives to the Oxford tutorial for management education. Articles in highly ranked management education and development academic journals were collected by searching these catalogs and compiling a database of 48 articles published in four premier journals. These articles were reviewed by two independent raters in order to arrive at 8 alternatives to the Oxford tutorial model that can achieve similar objectives of said tutorials while reducing costs. These alternative tutorial models all involve the application of information communication technologies to tutorials and include peer instruction, simulations and games, online collaborative learning, syndicates, flipped classrooms, communication systems, tailored learning, and portfolios. Challenges and implementation guidelines are explained for each alternative tutorial model.

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New Content ItemThis study explores pre-service preschool teachers’ acceptance and self-efficacy towards Educational Robotics (ER) during a university course, and also examines their perceptions of the course.

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New Content ItemPedagogical foundations exist for incorporating technology in instruction; however, these foundations have not kept pace with technology's evolution. Through the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), students now can share content directed at external audiences, i.e., audiences other than the instructor. These audiences are referred to as authentic audiences as they are public-facing and exist outside of the classroom. The existing literature offers evidence of student satisfaction with assignments directed at appealing to external audiences, however, the literature provides no comprehensive pedagogical rationale for assignments directed at authentic audiences wherein the goals are self-determined. The authors discuss the theory of heutagogy, the study of self-determined learning, as an approach for assessing assignments that utilize ICTs and are directed at authentic audiences. Finally, the authors offer an approach for the assessment of these assignments, including a rubric.

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New Content ItemWith the development of information technology and the advent of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and Small Private Online Course (SPOC), various online courses which include a lot of new resources and new teaching methods have appeared. The application of advanced teaching resources and educational concepts can improve students' learning experiences. This paper proposes a hybrid closed-loop teaching model of analog circuit SPOC based on online live. The course design is centered on the improvement of students' abilities. An online course resources construction mode of self-built platform with excellent courses introduction is expounded. It enriches the number of online course resources and increases the forms of resource expression. In teaching design, here present the target classification method based on Bloom, the indicators of the Bloom model corresponding to the knowledge, process arrangement, and tests of analog circuits. It also discusses the rules and presentation methods of learning goals, and online experiment teaching based on simulation. Taking the analog circuit course as an example, the implementation methods of resource construction, goal setting, live class schedule, PBL summary, course test, experimental teaching are described. Finally, it summarizes the methods of teaching data collection and the idea of optimizing teaching design applying feedback data. The current data shows that online SPOC teaching mode is conducive to improving students' interest in learning and cultivating their comprehensive ability.

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New Content ItemThe emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) broadened the educational landscape by providing free access to quality learning materials for anyone with a device connected to the Internet. However, open access does not guarantee equals opportunities to learn, and research has repetitively reported that learners from affluent countries benefit the most from MOOCs. In this work, we delve into this gap by defining and measuring completion and assessment biases with respect to learners’ language and development status. We do so by performing a large-scale analysis across 158 MITx MOOC runs from 120 different courses offered on edX between 2013 and 2018, with 2.8 million enrollments. We see that learners from developing countries are less likely to complete MOOCs successfully, but we do not find evidence regarding a negative effect of not being English-native. Our findings point out that not only the specific population of learners is responsible for this bias, but also that the course itself has a similar impact. Independent of and less frequent than completion bias, we found assessment bias, that is when the mean ability gained by learners from developing countries is lower than that of learners from developed countries. The ability is inferred from the responses of the learners to the course-assessment using item response theory (IRT). Finally, we applied differential item functioning (DIF) methods with the objective of detecting items that might be causing the assessment bias, obtaining weak, yet positive results with respect to the magnitude of the bias reduction. Our results provide statistical evidence on the role that course design might have on these biases, with a call for action so that the future generation of MOOCs focus on strengthening their inclusive design approaches.

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New Content ItemWith the rampant pandemic of COVID-19, an increasing number of people are acquiring knowledge through online learning approaches. This study aims to investigate how to improve online learning effectiveness during this special time. Through a mixed design, this study revealed the effect of educational levels, gender, and personality traits on online learning outcomes. It was concluded that postgraduates (N = 599) outperformed undergraduates (N = 553) in online learning, learners (N = 1152) with strong personality traits such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to a new experience outperformed those with strong extraversion and neuroticism. Future research could improve interpersonal interactions and encourage learners to post words in the online discussion forum, focus on how to design scaffolding online learning and how to improve the quality and dynamic of the online contents, and highlight blended learning rather than either merely online or traditional face-to-face learning.

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New Content ItemEducational technology has become an indispensable aspect of higher education, playing a crucial role in affecting student engagement, in particular. The application, advantages and disadvantages of learning management systems (LMS) and social networking systems in Chinese EFL courses, represented by Superstar—Xuexitong and WeChat, are introduced. The study aims to explore the relationship between the two educational technology tools and three dimensions of student engagement. Using an adopted and revised questionnaire from previous researches, the study measures the extent of impact of the specified educational technology tools on student engagement with the help of SPSS. Through the independent sample T tests, analysis of variance, correlation and regression, the study found that emotional engagement has the strongest positive effect on educational technology engagement. In addition, analysis of the four principal factors indicates that using LMS could engage students more than adopting social networking systems. There are significant differences in cognitive engagement between different genders, with that of males surpassing females. This article provides some empirical evidence for exploration into the use of educational technology in a specific discipline to foster better student engagement.

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New Content ItemIn a context where learning mediated by technology has gained prominence in higher education, learning analytics has become a powerful tool to collect and analyse data with the aim of improving students’ learning. However, learning analytics is part of a young community and its developments deserve further exploration. Some critical stances claim that learning analytics tends to underplay the complexity of teaching-learning processes. By means of both a bibliometric and a content analysis, this paper examines the publication patterns on learning analytics in higher education and their main challenges. 385 papers that were published in WoScc and SciELO indexes between 2013 and 2019 were identified and analysed. Learning analytics is a vibrant and fast-developing community. However, it continues to face multiple and complex challenges, especially regarding students’ learning and their implications. The paper concludes by distinguishing between a practice-based and management-oriented community of learning analytics and an academic-oriented community. Within both communities, though, it seems that the focus is more on analytics than on learning.

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New Content ItemWhile course videos are powerful teaching resources in online courses, students often have difficulty sustaining their attention while watching videos and comprehending the content. This study adopted teacher annotations on videos as an instructional support to engage students in watching course videos. Forty-two students in an undergraduate course at a university in Taiwan were randomly divided into a control group that watched a course video without teacher annotations, and an experimental group that watched a course video with teacher annotations. The collected data included a learning engagement survey, students’ video watching behaviors, and student interviews. The results showed that there were differences in student learning engagement between the control and experimental groups. The teacher annotations increased students’ behavioral and cognitive engagement in watching the video but did not increase their emotional engagement. In addition, this study identified how students learned when watching the course video with the teacher annotations through highlights of the video content, literal questions, reflective questions and inferential questions. The results concluded that teacher annotations and student learning engagement were positively correlated. The students acknowledged that their retention and comprehension of the video content increased with the support of the teacher annotations.                            

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New Content ItemThis study aims to explore how stakeholders’ data literacy contributes to student success in a holistic view. The salience model is used to identify core stakeholders. The goal-modeling language iStar is used to present how stakeholders contribute to student success. A competencies matrix of data literacy is used to discuss the specific data literacy competencies that stakeholders should focus on promoting student success. A survey is conducted to validate the goal-oriented analysis and the discussions on specific competencies of data literacy for stakeholders. The goal-oriented analysis presents the complexity of interactions and dependencies among stakeholders for student success. This study helps to raise stakeholders to be aware of the importance of their data literacy and the necessity of collaboration on exploiting vast available data for student success.

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New Content ItemThis paper explores the potential in supporting asynchronous online discussion activity through learning analytics. From the beginning, the authors acknowledged the limitations of technology to support the complexities of a pedagogical activity. Therefore, the methodology used was participatory design-based research (DBR) divided into two main stages. The first design phase dealt with the engagement of teachers and pedagogical experts in defining the data and metrics to be used to support the pedagogical concepts. The second consisted of an implementation phase including pilots with students and with crucial engagement of teachers in commenting their understanding over students’ learning processes and the feedback the teachers could offer to them. Overall, the students shown improvements in their performance as monitored through the learning analytics group in contrast with control groups.

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New Content ItemThis paper describes our experiences with a public WordPress-based blog was developed for the Nutrition and Dietetics module of the undergraduate course in Nursing at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). This was primarily intended as way to use ICT to increase the level of student engagement and interest in learning the subject, but also as a way to introduce future health professionals to the world of blogging. By analysing the outcomes of this preliminary evaluation of a pedagogy, it is concluded that blogs are a very useful tool, although it is suggested that the literature shows a certain bias toward the publication of successful trials.

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New Content ItemThe goal of this study was to show that simulation-based instruction contributes significantly to students’ progress in written production in English. The results showed that students who received simulation-based instruction (experimental group) significantly improved their English writing skills, primarily in terms of organisation and linking of ideas more than students who attended a regular English course (control group).

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New Content Item (2)A considerable amount of literature has recently appeared around the theme of learning networks and Connectivism. However, our understanding of how and why students navigate learning networks in the way they do is limited and the field lacks empirical studies investigating how students form connections. This paper presents a model showing how students form connections to different kinds of resources, along with the criteria they use to decide on which resource to choose. The findings were derived by conducting retrospective think-aloud sessions with nine participants after solving 10 tasks each. Mixed-methods approach was used in the data analysis. A goal of this research is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the navigation processes in learning networks and to provide guidance for online learning practitioners who seek to improve their practices.

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Yearly infographic

2022

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2021

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2020

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2019

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2018

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2017

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2016

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Associated institutions

The International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education is associated with:

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Universidad de los Andes

Dublin City University

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Annual Journal Metrics

  • 2022 Citation Impact
    8.6 - 2-year Impact Factor
    9.4 - 5-year Impact Factor
    3.850 - SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper)
    2.051 - SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

    2023 Speed
    28 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
    91 days submission to accept (Median)

    2023 Usage 
    2,572,502 downloads
    1,356 Altmetric mentions
     

This journal is indexed by

  • Scopus
  • Social Sciences Citation Index® (SSCI)
  • Journal Citation Reports/ Social Sciences Edition
  • Current Contents®/Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • ProQuest Central
  • Google Scholar
  • DOAJ