Vocational Education and Training in the Age of Digitization

The increasing digitization of the world of work is associated with accelerated structural changes. These are connected with changed qualification profiles and thus new challenges for vocational education and training (VET). Companies, vocational schools and other educational institutions must respond appropriately. The volume focuses on the diverse demands placed on teachers, learners and educational institutions in vocational education and training and aims to provide up-to-date results on learning in the digital age

Scalable Teaching and Learning via Intelligent User Interfaces

The increasing demand for higher education and the educational budget cuts lead to large class sizes. Learning at scale is also the norm in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). While it seems cost-effective, the massive scale of class challenges the adoption of proven pedagogical approaches and practices that work well in small classes, especially those that emphasize interactivity, active learning, and personalized learning. As a result, the standard teaching approach in today’s large classes is still lectured-based and teacher-centric, with limited active learning activities, and with relatively low teaching and learning effectiveness. This dissertation explores the usage of Intelligent User Interfaces (IUIs) to facilitate the efficient and effective adoption of the tried-and-true pedagogies at scale. The first system is MindMiner, an instructor-side data exploration and visualization system for peer review understanding. MindMiner helps instructors externalize and quantify their subjective domain knowledge, interactively make sense of student peer review data, and improve data exploration efficiency via distance metric learning. MindMiner also helps instructors generate customized feedback to students at scale. We then present BayesHeart, a probabilistic approach for implicit heart rate monitoring on smartphones. When integrated with MOOC mobile clients, BayesHeart can capture learners’ heart rates implicitly when they watch videos. Such information is the foundation of learner attention/affect modeling, which enables a ‘sensorless’ and scalable feedback channel from students to instructors. We then present CourseMIRROR, an intelligent mobile system integrated with Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques that enables scalable reflection prompts in large classrooms. CourseMIRROR 1) automatically reminds and collects students’ in-situ written reflections after each lecture; 2) continuously monitors the quality of a student’s reflection at composition time and generates helpful feedback to scaffold reflection writing; 3) summarizes the reflections and presents the most significant ones to both instructors and students. Last, we present ToneWars, an educational game connecting Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) learners with native speakers via collaborative mobile gameplay. We present a scalable approach to enable authentic competition and skill comparison with native speakers by modeling their interaction patterns and language skills asynchronously. We also prove the effectiveness of such modeling in a longitudinal study

Building Bridges Towards Self-regulation: The Goal-Setting Behaviour of Adult Language Learners in MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offer educational opportunities to a wide range of learners. Language learners can use these courses to develop knowledge and practise language skills needed daily or in different areas of specialisation. However, learners may not benefit from this learning opportunity if they do not know how to self-regulate their learning. Self-regulated learners employ various processes to master their learning and accomplish their goals. The literature shows that goal setting is a helpful self-regulatory process that contributes to a successful MOOC learning experience. Goal setting is the driving force behind any educational intention and can provide the basis for a strategic plan formulated by learners at the start of a learning task. Moreover, this self-regulatory process holds the key to activating, monitoring, and assessing an effective learning process. Nonetheless, goal-setting support in these online courses is scarce. Research on goal setting in MOOCs has not previously investigated the personal learning goals that learners bring to these non-formal learning environments. This represents a twofold omission in the field of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), in which MOOCs are themselves an under-researched area. Although CALL practitioners have gradually integrated MOOCs into the L2 classroom, little research has examined adult learners' goals during their MOOC-based learning. To address this gap in the literature, this research uncovers the goal-setting behaviour of 19 adult learners who studied MOOCs for four weeks as part of their classroom-based language courses. To achieve this aim, the researcher gathered and analysed 38 semi-structured interviews, 71 weekly monitoring surveys, 19 open-ended questionnaires and 19 MOOC screenshots. The findings of this study advance the field of CALL by providing a comprehensive picture of the different aspects of language, traditional and non-traditional goals, and MOOC elements involved when L2 adult learners self-regulate their learning online

Tracing learning strategies in online learning environments: a learning analytics approach

Learning has expanded beyond formal education; yet, students continue to face the challenge of how to effectively direct their learning. Among the processes of learning, the selection and application of learning tactics and strategies are fundamental steps. Learning tactics and strategies have long been considered as key predictors of learning performance. Theoretical models of self-regulated learning (SRL) assert that the choice and use of learning tactics and strategies are influenced by the internal (cognitive) and external (task) conditions. These conditions are consistently updated when students receive internal/external feedback. However, internal feedback generated based on students’ evaluation of their own performance against the expectation and/or learning goal is not accurate. Guiding students to apply appropriate learning strategies i.e. providing external feedback, hence, could enhance the students’ learning. Recent research literature suggests that learning analytics can be leveraged to support students in the selection and use of effective learning tactics and strategies. However, there has been limited literature on the ways this can be achieved. This thesis aims to fill this gap in the literature. This thesis begins by exploring the state of the art regarding how students receive learning analytics-based support for the selection and application of learning tactics and strategies. The systematic literature review on this topic reveals that students rarely receive feedback on learning tactics and strategies with learning analytics dashboards. One of the barriers to providing feedback on learning tactics and strategies is the difficulty in detecting learning tactics and strategies that students used when interacting with learning activities. Hence, this thesis proposes a novel analyticsbased approach to detect learning tactics and strategies based on digital trace data recorded in learning environments. The proposed analytics-based approach is based on process, sequence mining and clustering techniques. To validate the results of the proposed approach and the credibility of the automatically detected learning tactics and strategies, associations with academic performance and different feedback conditions are explored. To further validate the approach, the efficacy of each proposed approach in the detection of learning tactics and strategies is investigated. In addition, the thesis explores the alignment of the automatically detected learning tactics and strategies with relevant models of SRL. This is done by examining the association between the internal conditions and external conditions. Specifically, internal conditions are represented by the disposition of students based on self-reports of personality traits, whereas external conditions are represented by course instructional designs and delivery modalities. The thesis is concluded with a discussion of the implications of the proposed analytics methodology on research and practice of learning and teaching

Contributions of peer-review activity for the teaching-learning process in online education: new paths for language teacher education

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos e Literários, Florianópolis, 2016.Abstract : This dissertation focuses on developing further understanding of peer-review activity in e-learning contexts by 1) evaluating intervention outcomes, 2) providing an overview of learners? views, 3) postulating a philosophical justification for collaborative learning technologies, and 4) providing pedagogical implications for teacher professional learning and second language academic literacy. It investigates an online peer-review activity among students from two different online learning settings: 1) a Masters program using the Scholar platform, and 2) a MOOC employing the Coursera LMS. Both courses were offered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This study has 43 participants: 12 took the Coursera course and 31 took the Scholar course. They all performed an online activity of writing a case study guided by rubrics, blind peer reviewing around three cases studies of their peers employing a review criteria and providing numeric and descriptive feedback, revising their own case study based on the feedback, and rewriting it. Data were collected from the feedback, and from surveys. Data from the feedback (100 reviews ? 74 on Scholar and 26 on Coursera) was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The former measured reviewers? reliability considering intraclass correlations for consistency and agreement and the latter was classified into categories that emerged from the data. Results show that the Medians for reliability for both groups are similar to Median found in the literature for expert raters. The Scholar participants provided more descriptive feedback than those working in Coursera. In addition, the former group provided more qualitative feedback than Coursera participants. Data from the surveys were organized to expose the demographics and to reveal students? views concerning their learning experience on the activity of peer reviewing. Participants reported having a positive view of the experience of receiving and providing feedback. Moreover, they recognized the helpfulness of the rubrics to write their case study and to provide feedback to their peers. Also, students perceived that the peer-review activity fostered the development of skills, metacognition, and high-level cognition. The conclusion is that learning environments such as Scholar can foster learning opportunities by providing multiple sources of feedback. They also benefit professors by supporting complex managerial procedures of the activity. Finally, environments such as these promote a shift both on the flow of knowledge and on students? and professors? roles by attributing to all participants of the teaching-learning process the responsibility of the co-construction of knowledge.Esta tese objetiva apresentar uma maior compreensão sobre a atividade de revisão por pares em contextos de aprendizagem online buscando: 1) avaliar os resultados da intervenção, 2) fornecer uma visão geral das apreciações dos alunos, 3) postular uma justificação filosófica para as tecnologias de aprendizagem colaborativa, e 4) fornecer implicações pedagógicas para a formação profissional de professor e desenvolvimento de habilidades acadêmicas em segunda língua. Este estudo investiga uma atividade online de revisão por pares entre alunos de dois programas diferentes: 1) um programa de mestrado usando a plataforma Scholar, e 2) um MOOC empregando o Coursera como LMS. Ambos foram oferecidos pela University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A investigação conta com 43 participantes: 12 do curso Coursera e 31 do curso Scholar. Todos realizaram uma atividade online que consistia em: escrever um trabalho guiado orientações escritas; realizar revisão cega por pares de cerca de três trabalhos de seus colegas utilizando critérios de revisão e oferecendo feedback numérico e descritivo; revisando seu próprio trabalho com base no feedback, e reescrevê-lo. Os dados foram coletados a partir do feedback e através de questionários. Os dados do feedback (100 comentários - 74 no Scholar e 26 no Coursera) foram analisados quantitativamente e qualitativamente. A análise quantitativa mediu a confiabilidade e a concordância entre revisores com o coeficiente de correlação intraclasse e a análise qualitativa foi realizada classificando os dados em categorias que emergiram dos dados. Os resultados mostram que as medianas para a confiabilidade dos dois grupos são semelhantes à mediana encontrada na literatura para avaliadores profissionais. Para o feedback descritivo, os participantes do Scholar forneceram mais feedback descritivo que os alunos do Coursera. Além disso, participantes do forneceram mais quantidade de feedback de boa qualidade que participantes do Coursera. Os dados dos questionários foram organizadas para expor os dados pessoais dos participantes e para revelar a percepção dos mesmo quanto à suas experiência de aprendizagem sobre a atividade de revisão por pares. Os participantes relataram ter uma visão positiva da experiência de receber e fornecer feedback. Além disso, eles reconhecem a utilidade das instruções ao escreverem seu trabalho e para fornecer feedback aos seus pares. Além disso, os alunos perceberam que a atividade de revisão por pares fomentou o desenvolvimento de habilidades, metacognição e cognição de alto nível. A conclusão é que os ambientes de aprendizagem, tais como Scholar pode fomentar oportunidades de aprendizagem, proporcionando múltiplas fontes de feedback. Tais ambientes também beneficiam professores por cuidarem de todos os procedimentos gerenciais da atividade. Por último, tais atividades promovem uma mudança tanto no fluxo de conhecimentos quanto nos papéis desempenhados por alunos e professores, atribuindo a todos os participantes do processo de ensino-aprendizagem a responsabilidade da coconstrução do conhecimento