Research Article
Anh Tuan Pham
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 17, Issue 1, Article No: ep550
ABSTRACT
Blended massive open online courses (bMOOCs) have emerged as a potential educational model that combines conventional in-person instruction with online learning. The investigation into students’ level of interaction in bMOOCs is significant to the effective implementation of bMOOCs in higher education. This study investigates the perceived level of student interaction with their peers, instructors, content, and technology in bMOOC environments, the relationship between their interaction and satisfaction, and ways of enhancing student interaction. This research employs a mixed-method data collection approach, including qualitative semi-structured interviews and quantitative data analysis, with the participation of 339 students at a higher education institution in Vietnam. The findings reveal that students’ perceived level of interaction was quite high. Student interaction in offline classes was preferred to the massive open online courses environment. Besides, student interaction types and their satisfaction were positively correlated. The paper also addresses possible suggestions for maximizing student interaction in bMOOC environments and practical implications for educational practices in higher education.
Keywords: blended learning, MOOCs, interaction, Coursera
Research Article
Mohammed Muneerali Thottoli, Badria Hamed Alruqaishi, Arockiasamy Soosaimanickam
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 16, Issue 1, Article No: ep485
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to alleviate some of the challenges faced by humans. Faculties frequently swamped with teaching and research may find it difficult to act in a parental role for students by offering them individualized advice. Hence, the primary purpose of this study is to review the literature on chatbots and AI in light of their role in auto-advising systems. The authors aimed to gain insights into the most pertinent topics and concerns related to robo academic advisor and identify any gaps in the literature that could serve as potential avenues for further research.
Design/methodology/approach: The research employs a systematic literature review and bibliometric techniques to find 67 primary papers that have been published between 1984 and 2023. Using the Scopus database, the researchers built a summary of the literature on chatbots and AI in academic advice.
Findings: Chatbot applications can be a promising approach to address the challenges of balancing personalized student advising with automation. More empirical research is required, especially on chatbots and other AI-based advising systems, to understand their effectiveness and how they can be integrated into educational settings.
Research limitations/implications: This research’s sample size may restrict its findings’ generalizability. Furthermore, the study’s focus on chatbots may overlook the potential benefits of other AI technologies in enhancing robo academic advising systems. Future research could explore the impact of robo academic advisors in diverse societal backgrounds to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their implications.
Practical implications: Higher educational institutions (HEIs) should establish a robo academic advising system that serves various stakeholders. The system’s chatbots and AI features must be user-friendly, considering the customers’ familiarity with robots.
Originality/value: This study contributes to a better understanding of HEIs’ perceptions of the adoption of chatbots and AI in academic advising by providing insightful information about the main forces behind robo academic advising, illuminating the most frequently studied uses of chatbots and AI in academic advising.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, chatbots, robo, academic advisor, human interaction
Research Article
Gulmira Tussupbekova, Kathy L. Malone, Janet Helmer, Gulnara Namyssova, Miruyert Abdrakhmanova, Filiz Polat, Zumrad Kataeva
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 4, Article No: ep386
ABSTRACT
This explanatory sequential mixed-method study explored the effectiveness of blended learning (BL) courses offered to graduate students at an English medium university in Kazakhstan. The study’s purpose was to explore and understand graduate students’ experiences while enrolled in BL courses by learning their perceptions of the benefits and challenges of BL, as well as its potential for enhancing their teacher leadership skills. A survey (n=81) and semi-structured individual interviews (n=17) were used as the main research instruments. This allowed for a detailed and rich data set on the conceptual underpinnings of the BL courses, their effectiveness, and their potential to inform higher education institutions towards implementing BL policies and practices, specifically in the field of education. Through the lens of the Interaction equivalency theorem, we analyzed students’ experiences and their interactions with their teachers and peers, as well as the mode, place, and pace of learning. This investigation revealed that the benefits of learning using BL outweighed its challenges. However, most of the participants preferred the face-to-face part of the BL course over its online teacher-student interaction component due to the opportunity to gain immediate feedback. Most importantly, the BL courses facilitated the enhancement of teacher leadership skills among the students. Finally, the paper provides recommendations for further development and revisions to current BL courses to enhance their learning value.
Keywords: blended learning, higher education, graduate students, educational leadership, interaction equivalency theory, Kazakhstan, teacher leadership
Research Article
Milagros Torrado Cespón, José María Díaz Lage
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 4, Article No: ep381
ABSTRACT
As a motivational teaching practice, gamification does not always work as expected. This paper supports these findings and adds the factor of online teaching analyzing the results of an experiment carried out in an online higher education context to test the relevance and motivational efficacy of ludic methodologies using learning and knowledge technology. Three groups of students (n=78, n=64, and n=74) participated in gamified experiences in the same subject. These groups were offered different approaches to the experiences, only one of which included a reward. Neither of the gamified experiences was compulsory. The results show how the use of technologies and gamification is not as appealing as it may seem and how other aspects—such as teacher-student relationship and interaction, rewards, and the sense of alienation generated by online teaching—influence student participation. The low rate of participation indicates that teachers must consider not only those students who participate but also those who do not. The main conclusion is that not only the methodology is important, but also the performance and the fact that student-teacher relationship in online education is more demanding, affectively speaking. Thus, those students who were in direct contact with the teacher during the execution of the gamified experience present a higher level of involvement. This is a factor to consider for the motivational needs of online university students where intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and direct interaction play essential roles.
Keywords: gamification, motivation, interaction, higher education, e-learning, alienation
Research Article
Waleed Alenezi, Thomas M. Brinthaupt
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 1, Article No: ep340
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to explore the use of social media by students in the Faculty of Education, University of Kuwait. The study was conducted within the context of the socio-cultural characteristics of Kuwait, and was underpinned by Alsaied’s (2017) Social Media - Learning Performance model, designed for female Arab students. A volunteer sample of 35 Kuwaiti undergraduate students (88.6% female) was interviewed. Students reported frequently using social media informally for socialization and entertainment, but less frequently as a formal educational tool. Most of the students perceived that social media facilitated interaction with peers, interaction with faculty, engagement, and collaborative learning. However, technical difficulties, and certain negative attitudes towards women using social media, were identified. We recommend that Kuwait University needs to harness the full benefits of social media for teaching and learning and to formulate official guidelines to control the use of social media by all faculty members and students.
Keywords: social media, Kuwait, learning performance, interaction with peers, interaction with faculty, student engagement, collaborative learning
Research Article
Roza Sh. Akhmadieva, Tatyana Yu. Guryanova, Aleksey V. Kurakin, Alexandr L. Makarov, Anna I. Skorobogatova, Victoria V. Krapivina
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp. 21-29
ABSTRACT
The relevance of this article is conditioned by the need to analyze and study the student views and positions on the issue of intercultural communication and intercultural interaction, as it is obvious that in the foreseeable future we will continue to live in a multi-ethnic, multicultural society and strive for the successful coexistence of many different cultures in social networks. The aim of the study is to identify the attitude of students communicating in social networks to ethnocentrism. The leading methods for the study of this problem are the methods of questioning and testing, allowing making a qualitative analysis of the peculiarities of the attitude of students communicating in social networks, to ethnocentrism, and allowing identifying the position of students on the issue of intercultural communication and intercultural interaction. The article reveals the criteria peculiar to the representatives of different ethnic groups with a high level of ethnocentrism. These students consider everything that happens in their culture to be natural and correct, and in others to be wrong; consider the customs of their group as universal: “what is good for us is good for others”; consider the norms, roles and values of their group to be absolutely correct; act so that the representatives of their group feel like winners; feel hostility towards external groups. It is determined that the presence of a set of these criteria and properties (or most of them) in the ethnic consciousness of the individual, allows us to talk about a high level of ethnocentrism. The novelty and originality of the study lies in the fact that a set of criteria characterizing the opinion of students, supporters of cultural relativism is revealed: they are often in contact with representatives of other ethnic groups and nationalities in social networks; absolutely do not feel discomfort in communicating with foreign cultural representatives, on the contrary, such communication is of great interest; in the formation of any group do not give preference to representatives of their own people, and are guided by other selection criteria; do not regard the culture of their people as a role model for other Nations. A set of criteria is identified for supporters of ethnocentrism: they believe everything that happens in their culture, natural and correct and others wrong; consider the customs of their group as universal; consider the norms, roles and values of their group is certainly correct; feel hostility towards external groups; in General, are rarely in contact with the representatives of other ethnic groups and nationalities; feel discomfort in communicating with other cultures representatives; believe that the loss of identity of their ethnic group is an unambiguously negative phenomenon; they do not consider the cultures of all peoples equally important and equal.
Keywords: students, intercultural communication, intercultural interaction, ethnocentrism
Book Review
Esra Barut
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 382-384
ABSTRACT
This book presents the things that should be done in an empirical human-computer interaction (HCI) study in a sequential way. Each step is presented in relation to other steps in the process. The book can help scholars interested in empirical HCI studies in their scientific research. Although the work is quite powerful with respect to the research process, it has limitations in providing theoretical field knowledge. The conversational writing style of the author adds to the comprehensibility of the book. Experiments and discussions are visualized using charts, tables or figures, and therefore, the narrative was materialized to increase retention.
Keywords: human-computer interaction, HCI, ergonomics, computers
Research Article
Yu-Fang Yeh
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 7, Issue 2, pp. 111-122
ABSTRACT
Animation is one of the useful contemporary educational technologies in teaching complex subjects. There is a growing interest in proper use of learner-technology interaction to promote learning quality for different groups of learner needs. The purpose of this study is to investigate if an interaction approach supports weak learners, who have poor domain knowledge and comprehension difficulty of the learning subject, in complex animation learning. Three interaction approaches were designed and evaluated in an educational animation program teaching a complex subject of data structures. Participants were 70 undergraduate students performed poorly in the experimental course of introductory data structures. They were randomly assigned into one of the three interaction approaches: pure-reason-dialogue, predict-oriented, and reason-predict-combination interactions. Learning effects of these interaction approaches were measured by near-transfer and far-transfer tests as well as learning process surveys including perceived content difficulty, mental effort expenditure, and usefulness of the interaction approach. Findings indicate that the reason-predict-combination interactions approach led to the greatest transfer performance and was rated by students as the most useful interaction approach for understanding the animation content. The findings generally recommend that for weak learners, interactions of reasoning dialogue is effective to develop near-transfer ability at the initial learning phase, whereas when learners’ knowledge grows to be capable of near-transfer task, the predict-oriented interactions become more helpful to gain far-transfer knowledge. Implications for design principles for interactive instructional animations and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Instructional animation, Weak learner, Data structures
Research Article
Hasan Karal, Mehmet Kokoc, Canan Colak, Yasin Yalcin
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 6, Issue 4, pp. 319-337
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to explore instructors’ perspectives on the effect of using pen-based technology in the online mathematics courses and understand instructors’ experiences in online mathematics teaching with pen-based technology. In this study, two instructors who taught online mathematics courses in fourteen weeks used digital pen as a pen-based technology. The data were obtained from semi-structured interviews and observation of online mathematics course records. The findings indicated that the use of digital pen in the online mathematics course was fairly beneficial in pedagogical and interaction aspects and it was necessary to use digital pen in online mathematics courses for displaying steps of problem solving process synchronously. It was concluded from the study that digital pen technology plays a positive role in the enhancement of interaction between the elements of an online learning environment by providing real-time feedback to students and permitting to digitize mathematical concepts. The observation findings also supported the statements of the instructors. The findings of the study have further provided some insight into how to use digital pen by an instructor in online mathematics course efficiently.
Keywords: Online mathematics course, Digital pen, Digital ink technology, Interaction in online learning, Teaching with digital ink
Research Article
Junko Yamamoto, Simeon Ananou
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 6, Issue 1, pp. 1-18
ABSTRACT
Even though technology has brought great benefits to current society, there are also indications that the manner in which people use technology has undermined their humanity in some respects. In this article the authors frame human nature in terms of four dimensions: cognition, social interaction, emotion, and ethics. We argue that while basic human nature remains constant, the four dimensions are molded to some extent by interaction with our environment, particularly through the use of technology. As a powerful factor, we need to use technology in a way that human cognition, social interaction, emotion, and ethics are supported and not seriously disturbed by digital devices. Education can be a means of helping learners use technology in a positive way, minimizing its negative potential. This paper shows how people’s choice and level of interaction with technology can allow them to live in harmony with technology. It also points to possible directions to teach healthy co-existence with technology. The suggestions include applying decision-making theory, increasing self-awareness, teaching academic honesty, and responding to problems with technology addiction through impulse control training and other programs
Keywords: Digital age, Humanity, Cognition, Social interaction, Ethics, Digital citizenship
Research Article
Lai Cheng Tung
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 4, Issue 4, pp. 236-248
ABSTRACT
Given the rising popularity of both open and distance learning (ODL) and social networking tools, it seems logical to merge and harness these two popular technologies with the goal of improving student educational experience. The integration seems to hold tremendous promise for the open and distance learning mode. To reduce the gap in the literature, this study explores the educational benefits of social media tools on distance learners’ perspectives and experiences in an online course taught using elgg (open source social media tool) platforms. To achieve this, the study relied on collecting qualitative and quantitative data from students who were required to use elgg, in addition to LMS, for one semester as part of their coursework. The findings indicated that students enjoyed the social learning experience afforded by the elgg better when compared to LMS to support one another in their distance learning experiences. It was also noted that students, with little experience in social networking and the sharing features on elgg, in most cases, exhibited high involvement in course-related work and graded exercises. Additionally, it was observed that students shared information limited only at the level required by the instruction mode. The study concludes that most students perceived their learning experience was enhanced by their interaction with each other and with the instructors in the elgg. The article ends with a discussion of results and highlighting the areas for future research on the topic.
Keywords: ODL, Social networking technology, Student interaction, LMS, elgg, Social learning experience
Research Article
Ozgen Korkmaz, Cengiz Sahin, Ertugrul Usta
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 2, Issue 3, pp. 200-212
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between interaction and audience anxiety levels and Internet addiction of adults. The research was performed in the survey model as a descriptive study. A total of 384 adults with different ages living in a Central Anatolian city constituted the sample of the study. Data were collected through the Interaction and Audience Anxiety Scale (α=.91) and Internet Addiction Scale (α=.86). The mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, and Pearson correlation coefficient were employed in analyzing the data (p < .05). The following results were obtained: Both the interaction anxiety and audience anxiety levels of adults were low. The levels among adults in the ages of 20-29 were significantly higher than the levels among adults in other age-groups. The levels of interaction anxiety and audience anxiety in the student group were significantly higher than other occupational groups. Gender did not differentiate interaction and audience anxiety levels of adults. There was also a positive and significant correlation between the levels of anxiety and Internet addiction.
Keywords: Interaction anxiety, Audience anxiety, Internet addiction, Adults
Research Article
Afzaal Ali, Israr Ahmad
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp. 118-134
ABSTRACT
Most of the people in Pakistan perceive distance learning as of poor quality. Therefore, the researchers conducted this study to find out whether it's only people’s perception or is there anything in reality, concerning the poor performance of the distance learning students compared to traditional students. Consistent with this rationale, the main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between student satisfaction and the following variables of the distance learning environment: Instructors' performance, course evaluation, and student-instructor interaction. The sample consisted of 245 students of Allama Iqbal Open University of Pakistan. Keeping in view the nature of relationships among the variables, correlation matrix and regression analysis in addition to frequency analysis were used to analyze the findings. The results showed that just like in traditional education, in distance learning at AIOU, enough interaction takes place between students and instructors; courses are up to date and well-designed; instructors are devoted, motivated, and equipped with the required competencies. Moreover, the faculty at AIOU is delivering distance courses that meet students' needs with regard to student-instructor interaction, instructor performance, and course evaluation.
Keywords: Distance learning, Student satisfaction, Instructor performance, Student-instructor interaction, Course evaluation