Artificial Intelligence And Big Data Technologies To Close The Achievement Gap.

We observe achievement gaps even in rich western countries, such as the UK, which in principle have the resources as well as the social and technical infrastructure to provide a better deal for all learners. The reasons for such gaps are complex and include the social and material poverty of some learners with their resulting other deficits, as well as failure by government to allocate sufficient resources to remedy the situation. On the supply side of the equation, a single teacher or university lecturer, even helped by a classroom assistant or tutorial assistant, cannot give each learner the kind of one-to-one attention that would really help to boost both their motivation and their attainment in ways that might mitigate the achievement gap. In this chapter Benedict du Boulay, Alexandra Poulovassilis, Wayne Holmes, and Manolis Mavrikis argue that we now have the technologies to assist both educators and learners, most commonly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects (STEM), at least some of the time. We present case studies from the fields of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) and Big Data. We look at how they can be used to provide personalised support for students and demonstrate that they are not designed to replace the teacher. In addition, we also describe tools for teachers to increase their awareness and, ultimately, free up time for them to provide nuanced, individualised support even in large cohorts

A spotlight on lack of evidence supporting the integration of blended learning in K-12 education

In an effort to highlight the need for, and lack of, quality empirical research in K-12 blended learning environments, this systematic narrative review investigated and reported on the quantity and quality of recent empirical research in K-12 blended learning, published between 2009 and February 2017. In addition to assessing the quality and scope of these studies, the effectiveness of blended learning environments on learning outcomes and potential contributing variables were discussed. Eleven articles were identified and found to meet the inclusionary criteria and measures of quality set by this review, extending the corpus of 5 articles identified by a previous 2009 meta-analysis commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education to 16. Mixed findings regarding the benefit of blended learning in a K-12 setting were reported across the literature, thereby highlighting the need for more extensive research in this domain

Blended Learning Based on Creative Approach: Enhancing The Mutual Impact of Creativity, Intrinsic Motivation and Achievement in Academic Camputer Courses.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become the essential part of the university course aims. The rapid speed of technical development, growth of information, and knowledge, gives the attention of the higher education to improve their teaching methods in a creative way. One of the educational innovative ways that gain support in learning methods is called blended learning. The blended learning approach is a mix of e-learning technology with conventional teaching methods to get the advantage of the both methods. The research is trying to apply the blended learning based on creative approach in order to enhance the mutual impact of creativity, intrinsic motivation and achievement in academic computer courses. Existing research has emphasized on the applications of distinctive characteristics of creative teaching strategies in the particular domain of blinded learning applications for academic computer courses. High successful management of creative approach in blended -learning application's task gives learners a sufficient creative knowledge and performance   in academic computer courses. So this research aims to decide on what the extent of applying blended learning based creative approach effects on the level of creativity, motivation, and achievement in the academic computer courses. The subject participants consist of 57 undergraduate students. They all enrolled in the academic computer course. The intrinsic motivation questionnaire, Torrance creativity test, achievement test, and rubric evaluation tool to evaluate the creativity of the final computer program product have been conducted. The whole sample was drawn randomly from the faculty of medicine- foundation year –Taif University in Saudi Arabia. A creative blended learning applications have been constructed to teach the students how to design computer program, the creative blended learning applications aim to build up student creative performance to build up the computer program in their profession.According to the findings blended learning applications based on creative approach have a positive effect on the learners' creative performance on computer programming. Furthermore there is a mutual relationship between creativity, intrinsic motivation and achievement in favor of creativity in computer programming. Key words: Blended learning , learning environment , Creativity, Intrinsic Motivation, computer creative performance ,  E-learning applications , E-learning  creative approach,  Rubric evaluation

Sustainable eLearning in a Changing Landscape: A Scoping Study (SeLScope)

The report begins by exploring the concept of sustainable e-learning - defining it and establishing its characteristics in the context of Higher Education. To ensure a sound and systematic process, the review is informed by a five-phase methodological framework for scoping reviews by Arksey and O'Malley (2005). Examples and perspectives on the concept of sustainable e-learning are summarised and key factors impacting on sustainability are abstracted. highlights potential gaps and suggests directions for further research on the topic

The Causal-Comparative Analysis of Academic Performance of High School Students With and Without Disabilities in the Face-To-Face and Online Educational Settings

The purpose of this non-experimental causal-comparative study was to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference in the academic performance of high school students with and without disabilities who received math instructions in face-to-face and online educational settings during the 2020-2021 school year. During that year, educational establishments worldwide transitioned from traditional face-to-face to online delivery mode, complying with the social distancing requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemics. The current study employed a convenience sample that consisted of 588 high school students from Georgia. Participants took the Georgia Milestones End-of-Course Test in Algebra I in the spring of 2021 after receiving math instructions in the online or face-to-face settings. The researcher used this test as the instrument and compared the participants’ scores. A two-way analysis of variance was used to examine the differences among six groups of students based on their disability status and the number of semesters taken online. The findings revealed that students with disabilities exhibited lower academic performance in math compared to their general education peers. Additionally, the study suggested that the transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on learning outcomes for all participants. However, the study did not find a significant interaction between students’ disability status and the number of online semesters in relation to their academic performance. The limitations of the study included the specific population and quasi-experimental design. Recommendations for future research addressed the factors that may affect students’ learning outcomes in online and face-to-face settings

Russian perspectives of online learning technologies in higher education: An empirical study of a MOOC

There has been a rapid growth of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the global education market in the last decade. Online learning technologies are becoming increasingly widespread in the non-formal education sector and in higher and supplementary vocational education. The use of MOOCs in Russia to support the delivery of educational programmes at university level opens opportunities in terms of expanding the educational choice for students, the development of virtual academic mobility, reduction in the cost of educational services, and improvement in the accessibility of education. However, the effectiveness of using different online learning technologies at university level, and the consequences of their widespread adoption, has not been sufficiently explored. In this research study, a comparative analysis is made of the effects of different online learning models on student educational outcomes in a university setting. A study was undertaken in which different groups of students at the Ural Federal University, Russia, were encouraged to study technical and humanities disciplines using a framework of blended learning, and online learning with tutoring support. The results of the study were compared with the results of a reference (control) group of students who studied the same disciplines in a traditionally taught model. It was found that both models (blended and online) of MOOC implementation demonstrated greater learning gains, in comparison with the traditional model. For engineering and technical disciplines, there was no statistically significant difference between blended or online learning technologies. For the humanities discipline, where the communicative component of the learning process was significant, the blended learning technology produced better results. Conclusions of this empirical research may be useful for heads of educational organizations and teachers in helping them to make strategic decisions about the modernization of university courses by increasing the effectiveness of the implementation of new educational technologies. The results of this research project will be used for implementing the State Priority Project, ‘The Modern Digital Educational Environment of the Russian Federation’

A Review of Behavior Analysis in Education

Most education research in applied behavior analysis (ABA) is specific to early learners, which presents significant opportunity to better determine the effectiveness of various instruction methods for college-aged learners (CALs). Within the context of pedagogy, or method of teaching, ABA is the scientific study of the effect of instructional techniques on student behaviors. The available research for college-aged learners is scattered, non-definitive, and has gaps over time. Despite declension over the past half-century, research examining evidence-based practices in education has identified multiple approaches to help instructors manage and improve individual student behaviors and academic performance for CALs. In this review, I evaluated the available research in education generally, identified methods with the most empirically supported evidence as a best practice for teachers, and suggested topics for future research to help fill in some of the current knowledge gaps in ABA within the confines of education. Additionally, I reviewed the available behavior-analytic research with CALs. These studies were evaluated by determining whether the instructional methods demonstrated clear results with significant improvements in student behaviors and student satisfaction. Analysis of the research identified personalized system of instruction (PSI) as the most effective teaching method for improving CAL outcomes. Given this finding, it is recommended that researchers in the field of ABA who are focused on CALs, develop more methods specific to PSI, encourage teachers apply them in a real-world setting, and determine how best to make this information widely available

A blended learning teaching strategy strengthens the nursing students’ performance and self-reported learning outcome achievement in an anatomy, physiology and biochemistry course – A quasi-experimental study

In nursing, bioscience is regarded as one of the cornerstones of nursing practice. However, bioscience disciplines as anatomy, physiology and biochemistry are considered challenging for students and the failure rate is high. In this study we explore a blended learning teaching strategy in an anatomy, physiology and biochemistry course for first year Bachelor nursing students. In the blended learning teaching strategy, short narrated online digital resources of bioscientific terms and concepts were integrated into the teaching design along with digital metacognitive evaluations of learning outcomes. Results show that compared to students receiving traditional face-to-face teaching, the students with a blended learning approach performed better on their national exam with a small to medium effect size (Cohen’s d=0.23). Student course evaluations supported the blended learning delivery with small to medium effect sizes. The students reported that the digital resources supported their learning outcome achievement, that they better understood the teacher’s expectations and that they were more satisfied with their virtual learning environment. This study adds to the growing literature of blended learning effectiveness in higher education, and suggests the use of digital resources as an enrichment of teaching and enhancement of students’ study experience.publishedVersio