Educational Technology Quarterly

A methodology for flipped learning in a cloud-oriented environment: enhancing future IT specialists' training

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The article discusses the components of a cloud-oriented environment for flipped learning in higher education institutions. It presents a methodology that utilizes various services and resources available in the university's cloud-oriented environment. The methodology is divided into three stages: preparatory, basic, and integrated. During the preparatory stage, students collaborate on collective projects within one discipline using Microsoft Teams. The aim is to develop general competencies. At the basic stage, students engage in tasks such as mini-projects, group projects, and individual projects while studying professionally-oriented disciplines. These tasks are performed using the GitHub cloud service. The integrated stage involves working on interdisciplinary projects that draw from multiple disciplines. The tasks for these projects are formed based on the study of several disciplines and utilize the Jira service. The article investigates the effectiveness of this methodology for flipped learning by analyzing its application in the university's cloud-oriented environment.

Computer-oriented management of students' educational activity in informatics practicum

Liudmyla I. Bilousova, Oleksandr H. Kolgatin, Larisa S. Kolgatina — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The paper explores various types of managing students’ educational activity, focusing on the educational discipline “Practicum of problem solving in informatics” for third-year students aspiring to become informatics teachers. The study aims to realize pedagogical conditions for computer-oriented management of students’ educational activity. The courseware design revolves around a progressive shift from direct management to self-management, with co-management and subsidiary management as intermediate stages. The information and communication educational environment is built on the Moodle learning management system, with the Workshop elements playing a central role in managing students’ educational activity. The suggested approach has been evaluated through pedagogical observation and assessment, demonstrating its efficiency. Furthermore, the study highlights students’ lack of competency in time planning and introspection based on experimental data.

Mobility in the information society: a holistic model

Mykola I. Striuk, Andrii M. Striuk, Serhiy O. Semerikov — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Ukraine’s National Strategy for Education Development aims to align its education system with global standards and sustainable development goals. One of the key objectives is to integrate higher education with European norms, offer diverse educational models, and meet information and communication needs. The European Commission supports this integration process by fostering initiatives such as the Bologna process, mobility, and cooperation with programs like Erasmus+. Mobility, enabled by information and communication technologies, is essential for building the European educational and scientific space. This paper explores the different aspects of mobility, such as geographic, social, professional, academic, learning, software, hardware, and technological mobility. It investigates how they relate to each other within socio-pedagogical and technical systems, highlighting their importance for the information society. Using historical and contemporary perspectives, the paper develops a holistic model of mobility in the information society. Future research directions include the dynamic evolution of mobility within higher education systems, its sociocultural implications, and its intersection with technological innovations and state-political transformations. Furthermore, the phenomenon of mobility in technological and pedagogical systems, driven by the spread of mobile information and communication technologies, deserves more attention.

Approaches to mass communication educational researches in universities and polytechnics of Nigeria

Udo Akpan — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In Nigeria, many Universities and Polytechnics offer Mass Communication as a course for many of its students. But the different education institutions find many difficulties to classify mass communication as a discipline in the humanities, arts or the social sciences. There is no doubt that this quagmire has affected the direction and pattern of research teachings, literature and practice. This has called for the unbundling of Mass Communication courses from the arts, humanities or social science faculties or colleges. This work is to take an analysis of past mass communication research academic projects to establish the most frequent methods, theories and sectors of mass communication researches by students of Wellspring University and Heritage Polytechnic located in Southern Nigeria for generalization of findings. The research method adopted was content analysis to obtain quantitative data from 155 copies of past academic students projects. Findings was that 121 or 78 percent of projects was by choice of survey methods while 91 or 59 percent prefer social responsibility theory in mass communication researches. Recommendations are that tertiary institutions should expand the scope of teaching mass communication with varieties of research methods and theories to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of Mass Communication as a distinct academic discipline.

Adaptive learning: a cluster-based literature review (2011-2022)

Liliia O. Fadieieva — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Adaptive learning is a personalized instruction system that adjusts to the needs, preferences, and progress of learners. This paper reviews the current and future developments of adaptive learning in higher education, especially in relation to the digital education strategy of the European Union. It also uses a cluster analysis framework to explore the main themes and their relationships in the academic literature on adaptive learning. The paper highlights the potential of emerging technologies such as AI, eye-tracking, and physiological measurements to improve the personalization and effectiveness of adaptive learning systems. It presents various methods, algorithms, and prototypes that incorporate learning styles into adaptive learning. It also stresses the importance of continuous professional development in e-learning, media literacy, computer security, and andragogy for teachers who use adaptive learning systems. The paper concludes that adaptive learning can promote creativity, innovation, and lifelong learning in Ukrainian higher education, but it also acknowledges the challenges and suggests further research to assess its impact.

Gamification implementation for educational purposes: a scoping review (2013-2018)

Elif Polat — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This review paper examines a worldwide phenomenon, gamification, in the educational context. After the high popularity of video games, the integration of gamification in the learning context has become one of the practices that have a considerable impact on learning. It is important to contribute to the literature on the educational value of gamification by providing a literature review of some aspects of the studies that have emerged in the field of educational gamification (EG) over a five-year period. It is crucial to have a more complete understanding of educational gamification without restricting emerged literature to defined criteria so that it can be discussed in relation to how much of an impact it has on learning outcomes. The current study systematically reviewed four well-known social science databases for studies on gamification in education published between January 2013 and April 2018. The study yielded 141 relevant papers that focused on only educational gamification concept and excluded other game related approaches. The findings indicate that gathering data regarding learner opinions on the application of gamification is the most frequent (N=34) study goal of these studies. Although the majority of papers highlight that gamification increases learner motivation and engagement, there is not yet enough data in this large body of research to conclusively state that using gamification would enhance learning and academic performance at the same level in every context. The findings imply that careful design based on instructional goals and context, as well as the needs of the students, is necessary for integration of gamification to serve its purpose effectively.
To sum up, ensuring the description of the most accurate implementation process for specific education contexts and subject fields may still be challenging, given the use of gamification in many distinct disciplines. Furthermore, educational gamification is studied in many contexts with various expectations, and the outcomes would inevitably be different. This review categorized the numerous educational advantages and challenges of gamification.