Face-to-face,blended, flipped,or online learning environment? Impact on learning performance and student cognitions

This study compares four learning environments: face-to-face learning (F2F), fully e-learning (EL), blended learning (BL), and flipped classroom (FC) with respect to students' learning performance. Moreover, this present research studies changes in perceived flexibility, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy beliefs of students, and the interaction effects in these student variables on learning performance. Two learning environment design elements: (1) lectures (2) group discussions building on guiding questions, were manipulated to create the four learning environments. Third-year undergraduate students (n = 106), enrolled in the “Animal and Human Physiology” course at CanTho University (Vietnam), were randomly assigned to one of the four learning environments. The results suggest a significant positive differential effect on learning performance when studying in a FC and BL setting. No significant interaction effects could be observed regarding changes in perceived flexibility, intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy. However, significant differences between learning conditions were observed in perceived flexibility. Analysis of focus group data corroborate the finding that students experience more flexibility in time and place when studying in FC, BL and EL environments. In addition, students in a FC environment reflect significantly larger positive changes in their self-efficacy. But, the qualitative data show how positive perceptions about flexibility, motivation and self-efficacy are often cancelled out by negative perceptions.     

Developing early warning systems to predict students’ online learning performance

An early warning system can help to identify at-risk students, or predict student learning performance by analyzing learning portfolios recorded in a learning management system (LMS). Although previous studies have shown the applicability of determining learner behaviors from an LMS, most investigated datasets are not assembled from online learning courses or from whole learning activities undertaken on courses that can be analyzed to evaluate students’ academic achievement. Previous studies generally focus on the construction of predictors for learner performance evaluation after a course has ended, and neglect the practical value of an “early warning” system to predict at-risk students while a course is in progress. We collected the complete learning activities of an online undergraduate course and applied data-mining techniques to develop an early warning system. Our results showed that, time-dependent variables extracted from LMS are critical factors for online learning. After students have used an LMS for a period of time, our early warning system effectively characterizes their current learning performance. Data-mining techniques are useful in the construction of early warning systems; based on our experimental results, classification and regression tree (CART), supplemented by AdaBoost is the best classifier for the evaluation of learning performance investigated by this study.     

Effect of AR-based online wearable guides on university students’ situational interest and learning performance

Universal Access in the Information Society - This study addresses whether augmented reality (AR)-based online wearable guides are better at improving learners’ situational interest (with...     

Implementing flipped learning approach based on ‘first principles of instruction’ in mathematics courses

This study investigates the effect of E-learning (EL), blended learning (BL) and flipped learning (FL) approaches on the mathematics achievement, self-regulation and mathematics self-efficacy. Participants consist of 163 first-year students attending an associate degree program (a 2-year program) of a state university. The EL, BL and FL settings in the research were designed based on Merrill's ‘First Principles of Instruction Design Theory’. In the research in which a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test research design was used, the data were obtained by means of mathematics achievement test, self-regulation and self-efficacy questionnaires. The experimental results showed that the mathematics achievement post-test scores of FL students were significantly higher than those of the students of EL and BL. No significant difference was found between BL and EL settings. In addition, FL students showed significantly higher self-regulation and mathematics self-efficacy than the other groups' students. According to these results, it can be said that the usage of FL approach in mathematics courses has a positive effect on the learning process of students. It is expected that the findings will be helpful in the future design and implementation of mathematics courses at vocational colleges.     

Can learning be virtually boosted? An investigation of online social networking impacts

Online social networking has deeply penetrated university campuses, influencing multiple aspects of student life. We investigate the impacts of individual online social networking engagement (e.g., on Facebook) from a pedagogical standpoint. Based on social learning theory, we argue that two socialization processes, social acceptance and acculturation, bridge individual online social networking engagement with three domains of social learning outcomes. Results from a survey accompanied by focus group discussions demonstrate the substantial impacts of university student online social networking engagement on social learning processes and outcomes. Online social networking not only directly influences university students’ learning outcomes, but also helps the students attain social acceptance from others and adapt to university culture, both of which play prominent roles in improving their learning outcomes.     

Can learning be virtually boosted? An investigation of online social networking impacts

Online social networking has deeply penetrated university campuses, influencing multiple aspects of student life. We investigate the impacts of individual online social networking engagement (e.g., on Facebook) from a pedagogical standpoint. Based on social learning theory, we argue that two socialization processes, social acceptance and acculturation, bridge individual online social networking engagement with three domains of social learning outcomes. Results from a survey accompanied by focus group discussions demonstrate the substantial impacts of university student online social networking engagement on social learning processes and outcomes. Online social networking not only directly influences university students’ learning outcomes, but also helps the students attain social acceptance from others and adapt to university culture, both of which play prominent roles in improving their learning outcomes.     

A programmed instruction tutoring system for Java™: consideration of learning performance and software self-efficacy

An undergraduate (n=23) and a graduate (n=23) class of information systems majors used a Web-based tutoring system during the first 3-h session of a 14-week course in interface design and implementation. The tutoring system taught a simple Java™ applet as the first technical training exercise, and the instructional design was based upon programmed instruction, which is a competency-based tutoring system. Software self-efficacy was assessed prior to using the tutor and at the end of the 3-h period. Students’ interactive performances (errors and help selections) were recorded for all interfaces in the tutor. The results showed that the undergraduate students made more input and test errors than did the graduate students, but the number of students in each class who completed all eight tutor stages (18 undergraduates and 17 graduates) was almost equivalent. Forty-four of the 46 students completed the fourth tutor stage, which presented frames of information explaining the items in the program. Students who did not complete all eight stages showed more errors on the initial four stages, in comparison to students who did complete all stages. Software self-efficacy increased from pre-tutor to post-tutor occasions for both classes and for both completers and non-completers. No significant relationship was found between software self-efficacy changes and tutor learning performance. Neither was gender related to software self-efficacy changes or learning performance. Evaluations of the tutor were favorable by almost all learners. A competency-based tutoring system may produce both skill and earned self-efficacy at the level of the individual learner, without regard to variations in the learning process leading to mastery.     

An online game approach for improving students’ learning performance in web-based problem-solving activities

In this paper, an online game was developed in the form of a competitive board game for conducting web-based problem-solving activities. The participants of the game determined their move by throwing a dice. Each location of the game board corresponds to a gaming task, which could be a web-based information-searching question or a mini-game; the former was used to guide the participants to search for information to answer a series of questions related to the target learning issue, while the latter was used to provide supplementary materials during the gaming process. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted on an elementary school natural science course. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach not only significantly promoted the flow experience, learning attitudes, learning interest and technology acceptance degree of the students, but also improved their learning achievements in the web-based problem-solving activity.     

Adapting instruction in search of ‘a significant difference’

The theory of learning styles states that people have different approaches to learning and studying [7,8]. Given a specific instruction method or environment, some people will learn more effectively than others due to their individual learning style and the grade distribution of the learning would be bell-shaped, with the majority of the learners appearing in the middle of the distribution curve. Several studies show that there is ‘No Significant Difference’ when technology is applied to instruction [6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 23, 25], since either in traditional classrooms or in any of the technological environments, there is only one form of instruction, and usually from one source, yielding the familiar bell shaped grade distribution. This explains the ‘No Significant Difference’ results and indicates that another instruction method needs to be investigated. An approach to achieve ‘A Significant Difference’ is to provide several different instruction methods. This paper describes Arthur, a Web-based instruction system that provides adaptive instruction to achieve ‘A Significant Difference’.     

Implementing digital game-based learning in schools: augmented learning environment of ‘Europe 2045’

It is widely agreed that the traditional process of schooling can benefit from the usage of computers as supportive tools. Of various approaches using computers in education over the last decade, e-learning and edutainment have become the most prominent. Recently, a number of authors have criticised these approaches arguing that they conserve traditional ‘drill and practice’ behaviouristic methods of teaching instead of enhancing and augmenting them. It has been proposed that a ‘paradigm shift’ is needed and that this shift may come through utilizing all the advantages of full-fledged video games, so-called digital game-based learning (DGBL). However, several case studies reported serious problems with the DGBL. Among the most notable issues are the lack of acceptance of games as an educational tool, problems with integration of games into formal schooling environments, and the so-called transfer problem, which is the problem of the inherent tension between game play and learning objectives, the tension that mitigates the ability of students to transfer knowledge gained in the video game to the real-world context. Here, we present a framework for an augmented learning environment (ALE), which verbalises one way of how these problems can be challenged. The ALE framework has been constructed based on our experience with the educational game, Europe 2045, which we developed and which has been implemented in a number of secondary schools in the Czech Republic during 2008. The key feature of this game is that it combines principles of on-line multi-player computer games with social, role-playing games. The evaluation which we present in this paper indicates the successful integration of the game and its acceptance by teachers and students. The ALE framework isolates key principles of the game contributing to this success, abstracts them into theoretical entities we call action-based spaces and causal and grounding links, and condenses them in a coherent methodological structure, which paves the way for further exploitation of the DGBL by educational game researchers and designers.     

Customers’ learning process during product customization: The case of online configuration tool kits

Online configuration tool kits present attractive opportunities for creating customized offers. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relevance of both the TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) and the experiential learning theory to understand how configuration contributes to provide value for end users. The qualitative survey shows that the TAM needs to be adapted to the case of configurators by measuring both perceived usefulness (PU) of the configured product and PU and ease of use of the configurator itself. The study shows the relevance of experiential learning theory as an antecedent of the TAM. A model summarizing our observations is proposed and discussed.     

An empirical investigation linking learners’ adoption of blended learning to their intention of full e-learning

Learning management system (LMS) is playing a major role in higher academic institutions worldwide. Even though full e-learning is becoming a feasible strategy for a number of institutions in the world, some institutions, especially those in developing countries, are resisting a full e-learning environment. Consequently, these academic institutions initially adopt LMS for blended learning to assess their readiness for full e-learning transformation. There are a number of studies that investigate the determinants of full e-learning, but very limited studies investigate the link between learners’ perception of blended learning and full e-learning. The objective of this study was to link learners’ adoption (perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness (PU) and satisfaction) of LMS in blended learning and their personal characteristics (self-efficacy, technology experience and personal innovativeness) to their intention to use full e-learning. Data were collected through a questionnaire from 512 learners in Oman. The study found that personal innovativeness, PU and satisfaction of LMS in blended learning are significant to learners’ intention to engage in full e-learning. Thus, learners’ adoption of LMS in blended learning boosts their intention to full e-learning. The results provide useful insights for practitioners and researchers on full e-learning planning and strategy.     

A study of peer coaching in teachers’ online professional learning communities

Universal Access in the Information Society - Facilitating professional development of teachers has been considered as a critical factor for improving education quality. The use of an online...     

A handheld classroom dashboard: Teachers’ perspectives on the use of real-time collaborative learning analytics

International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - In Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) classrooms it may be challenging for teachers to keep awareness of certain...     

Correction to: A handheld classroom dashboard: teachers’ perspectives on the use of real-time collaborative learning analytics

International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - The original version of this article unfortunately contained duplicate images for Figs. 4 and 6. The correct images are hereby...     

What type of learning style leads to online participation in the mixed-mode e-learning environment? A study of software usage instruction

Learning style is traditionally assumed to be a predictor of learning performance, yet few studies have identified the mediating and moderating effects between the two. This study extends previous research by proposing and testing a model that examines the mediating processes in the relationship between learning style and e-learning performance and the moderating effects of prior knowledge. The results show that the sensory/intuitive dimension of learning style predicts learning performance indirectly through the mediation of online participation. However, other types of learning styles do not affect online participation. Sensory students demonstrate a higher level and intuitive students a lower level of online participation. Prior knowledge plays an important role as a moderator between online participation and learning performance. This study was conducted in the context of software usage instruction using empirical data from 219 undergraduate students.     

Using ‘tangibles’ to promote novel forms of playful learning

Tangibles, in the form of physical artefacts that are electronically augmented and enhanced to trigger various digital events to happen, have the potential for providing innovative ways for children to play and learn, through novel forms of interacting and discovering. They offer, in addition, the scope for bringing playfulness back into learning. To this end, we designed an adventure game, where pairs of children have to discover as much as they can about a virtual imaginary creature called the Snark, through collaboratively interacting with a suite of tangibles. Underlying the design of the tangibles is a variety of transforms, which the children have to understand and reflect upon in order to make the Snark come alive and show itself in a variety of morphological and synaesthesic forms. The paper also reports on the findings of a study of the Snark game and discusses what it means to be engrossed in playful learning.     

Perceived ‘usefulness’ of online consumer reviews: An exploratory investigation across three services categories

Online reviews, a form of online word-of-mouth (eWOM), have recently become one of the most important sources of information for modern consumers. Recent scholarship involving eWOM often focuses on the transmission and impact of online reviews but sheds less light on the underlying processes that drive consumers’ receptions of them. Similarly, few studies have explored the recipients’ perspectives in the context of various services. This study addresses the aforementioned gaps in extant literature. The research model in this study is built upon the rich stream of literature related to how people are influenced by information and is tested on reviews collected from Yelp.com, a popular online advisory website dedicated to services businesses throughout the United States. The results of the study show that a combination of both reviewer and review characteristics are significantly correlated with the perceived usefulness of reviews. The study also finds several results that are anomalous to established knowledge related to consumers’ information consumption, both offline and online. The authors present the results of the study and discuss their significance for research and practice.