Mobile Learning in Distance Education: Utility or Futility

Can mobile technology improve flexibility and quality of interaction for graduate students in distance programs? This paper reports the results of an innovative study exploring the usability, learning, and social interaction of mobile access to online course materials at a Canadian distance education university. Through a system called MobiGlam, students accessed Moodle course materials on a variety of mobile devices. The Framework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education (FRAME) model (Koole, 2006) was used to examine the complexities of this mobile system, its perceived usefulness, and potential impact on distance students. The researchers recommend further study of the balance between the controls and constraints of social technologies and the needs of distance students. Is there a way to achieve a balance so as to encourage adaptation to new technologies and a greater sense of “connectedness” among learners? As a result of the study, the researchers remain supportive of “device-agnostic” mobile tools that permit the greatest freedom of choice to distance learners.Acknowledgements: Thank you to Mr. Curtis Collicutt, Mr. Darren Harkness, and Dr. Fatma Elsayed Meawad for all your technical support

Designing and Publication of Interactive E-Book for Students of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University: An Empirical Study

The present study aims to keep pace with the rapid developments in the field of e-learning which includes the widespread use of e-books. Therefore, the authors conducted a pilot study on (55) faculty members from various disciplines, they assured the importance of e-books in education and the need for them. Accordingly, the authors designed and published their book "Education Technology: Foundations and Applications" as an interactive application on apps platforms by using a design model that was developed by the authors, and by adopting a list of (28) standards divided into four domains to ensure the quality of the design and development of the e-book according to educational and technological standards. Thereafter, female students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of e-books and their self-efficacy in using it were identified by (44) female students of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. The results indicate that the students have the basic skills necessary to download and read e-books and take advantage of its characteristics, additionally, they believe in its usefulness and are satisfied with it as they intend to continue using e-books in the future. Keywords: Designing. Publication, interactive, e-book, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman Universit

User Awareness and Usability of Research Support Platforms amongst undergraduates at Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) in Ghana

Abstract The study examined the awareness and usability of online library research support platforms among undergraduate students at Kumasi Technical University in Ghana. 126 respondents were sampled and respectively drawn from all the seven faculties that consist of the student population. A descriptive survey method was employed to obtain data from the various faculties using a questionnaire. Analysis of data gathered was carried out using Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS), version 20 and excel 2016 for descriptive statistics using percentages. The results revealed that the majority of the students were not aware of the online library research support platforms available at the university library. They could not state the online library research support platforms they recently used at the university library or outside the university library. Also, the frequency at which they used the research platforms were not inspiring. It was further established that the research platforms were not easy to be used by undergraduate students. However, some of the respondents were satisfied with the research platforms and found them to be user-friendly. The study recommends that University Library should consider new ways of creating awareness to attract the new generation of students into the university library. For instance, introduce multimedia technologies that shall allow students to interact, create many open spaces with internet cables where other technological equipment and devices can be connected

AESTHETIC PERCEPTION AND MOTIVATION MODEL FOR FORMAL AND INFORMAL VISUAL ENVIRONMENTS

Researchers claim that aesthetic qualities of Formal Learning Visual Environments (FL YEs) have a persuasive role in intensifying learning motivation. Unfortunately, designers seem to overlook the necessity of aesthetic designing of FL YEs that could sustain Learners' Learning Motivation (LLM). The existing literature on aesthetic designing of FL YEs primarily focuses upon environment perspective and users' perspective. The existing studies, however, do not take into account, Learners' Aesthetic Perceptions (LAPs) in Informal Visual Environments (!YEs) which may also influence upon LLM. Recent research in this domain suggests that IVEs are producing learners' with a new profile of cognitive skills, such as visual-spatial intelligence and enhanced aesthetic perceptions. It is thus argued that LAPs formed in IVEs may result in establishment of new schemas (set of aesthetic expectations) and make learners' perceptually selective in judging aesthetics

A framework to facilitate effective e-learning in engineering development environments: executive summary

The demands of the continually changing and developing workplace require individuals to be adaptable, multi-disciplined and with the ability to work collaboratively, often in virtual environments. Professional engineers of today must meet these demands and have appropriate business and communication skills to operate in today's competitive, fast-moving, global environment. Yet these engineers still need to remain productive and routinely keep abreast of technological advances for their day-to-day working requirements. Thus, a range of continually renewable competencies is essential, which in turn puts pressure on both industry and academia to consider alternative ways to inform and educate their engineers and students. To help address these requirements, electronic learning (e-leaming) has been researched as a possible solution to facilitate a more flexible, distributed, collaborative, self-directed, virtual learning environment for both work-based professional engineers and engineering students. This research revealed gaps in both the existing literature and working practices regarding the elearning needs of engineers and in current approaches to meet these needs. Consequently, the main objective of the research was to develop a mechanism to assist providers of e-leaming to construct effective e-leaming activities in engineering development environments. In this context, 'development' environments refer to the engineer's product-development environment and the engineering student's study environment, with the increasing responsibility for selfdevelopment in an engineering career. The research identified and investigated factors that affect learning in these engineering environments, and examined current Web-based technologies to support and enhance learning experiences. A framework was developed as the mechanism to group the different and non-comparable learning factors together into philosophy, delivery, management and technology categories. These learning factors can be connected and sequenced differently in the categories, depending on the learning requirements. Hence, the main research innovation has been the creation of this framework to structure, link and order key learning factors, which offers guidance to e-leaming providers developing e-leaming environments. A predominant action research methodology was adopted for the research, as the author was involved with engineering environments and their e-leaming practices, decisions, developments and implementations in varying degrees. The main areas investigated for the research were: 1) Exploring learning methods & preferred learning styles in the engineering environment. Important findings here identified that engineers have a strong visual learning style preference and practise experiential learning in their engineering environments. 2) Examining technologies to support and enhance learning. This provided an understanding of 'hard' computer and Web capabilities, and 'soft' non-tangible technologies. Web technologies were of particular interest to this research due to their wide reach and interactive impact on the modem working and learning environments. 3) Investigating marketing considerations from the Web-based learning (WBL) providers' viewpoint. Marketing issues, products and services of WBL providers were investigated. This compared what and how the market offered and identified the business aspects of WBL. 4) Developing an e-learning framework. The research was consolidated to create a novel framework that grouped disparate learning factors for effective e-leaming development. 5) Studying practical engineering e-learning applications. Areas of the proposed framework were validated and refined from the case study data and experiences. Critical success factors (CSF) were derived to provide a business perspective for e-leaming developments, and these complemented the framework's learning factors. The above areas have been addressed in detail and documented in separate Engineering Doctorate submissions. This Executive Summary outlines and consolidates these areas, and describes, exemplifies and verifies the various factors within the e-leaming framework and the CSFs. The rationale, applications and guidelines for the e-leaming framework are also discussed. The framework provides a toolkit for building effective e-leaming activities in engineering development environments. Thus, the research shows that e-leaming can provide the solution to facilitate a flexible, continuous learning environment for engineers

Learn Smarter, Not Harder – Exploring the Development of Learning Analytics Use Cases to Create Tailor-Made Online Learning Experiences

Our world is significantly shaped by digitalization, fostering new opportunities for technology-mediated learning. Therefore, massive amounts of knowledge become available online. However, concurrently these formats entail less interaction and guidance from lecturers. Thus, learners need to be supported by intelligent learning tools that provide suitable knowledge in a tailored way. In this context, the use of learning analytics in its multifaceted forms is essential. Existing literature shows a proliferation of learning analytics use cases without a systematic structure. Based on a structured literature review of 42 papers we organized existing literature contributions systematically and derived four use cases: learning dashboards, individualized content, tutoring systems, and adaptable learning process based on personality. Our use cases will serve as a basis for a targeted scientific discourse and are valuable orientation for the development of future learning analytics use cases to give rise to the new form of Learning Experience Platforms

Technologies to enhance self-directed learning from hypertext

With the growing popularity of the World Wide Web, materials presented to learners in the form of hypertext have become a major instructional resource. Despite the potential of hypertext to facilitate access to learning materials, self-directed learning from hypertext is often associated with many concerns. Self-directed learners, due to their different viewpoints, may follow different navigation paths, and thus they will have different interactions with knowledge. Therefore, learners can end up being disoriented or cognitively-overloaded due to the potential gap between what they need and what actually exists on the Web. In addition, while a lot of research has gone into supporting the task of finding web resources, less attention has been paid to the task of supporting the interpretation of Web pages. The inability to interpret the content of pages leads learners to interrupt their current browsing activities to seek help from other human resources or explanatory learning materials. Such activity can weaken learner engagement and lower their motivation to learn. This thesis aims to promote self-directed learning from hypertext resources by proposing solutions to the above problems. It first presents Knowledge Puzzle, a tool that proposes a constructivist approach to learn from the Web. Its main contribution to Web-based learning is that self-directed learners will be able to adapt the path of instruction and the structure of hypertext to their way of thinking, regardless of how the Web content is delivered. This can effectively reduce the gap between what they need and what exists on the Web. SWLinker is another system proposed in this thesis with the aim of supporting the interpretation of Web pages using ontology based semantic annotation. It is an extension to the Internet Explorer Web browser that automatically creates a semantic layer of explanatory information and instructional guidance over Web pages. It also aims to break the conventional view of Web browsing as an individual activity by leveraging the notion of ontology-based collaborative browsing. Both of the tools presented in this thesis were evaluated by students within the context of particular learning tasks. The results show that they effectively fulfilled the intended goals by facilitating learning from hypertext without introducing high overheads in terms of usability or browsing efforts

Investigating the Impact of E-Learner Cognitive Style on the Predictive Value of Student Success in Online Distance Education Courses

Currently, online professional development is growing rapidly in business and industry. The purpose of this study was to determine whether learners\u27 cognitive styles influenced the learners\u27 online course satisfaction and the possible relationships with student demographic characteristics. 83 participants of a Southeast Florida public school district completed the data-gathering instruments. Data was entered into a Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) computer program for statistical analyses. Results suggest that cognitive learning styles influence a learner\u27s online course satisfaction. Furthermore, certain student demographic characteristics effect online course satisfaction. Successful experience in an online learning environment increases student achievement

Intramural, collaborative learning systems

This thesis focuses on three related concepts: problem-based collaborative learning; the use of multimedia tools in learning systems; and participatory design as a software engineering methodology to create multimedia tools to be used in learning systems. A literature review of the three areas is followed by an overview of the pedagogical, technological, and business trends that affect the direction of innovation in education, including problem-based learning. A discussion of a software engineering project to develop a multimedia application that enhances the learning of geography skills and puts the programming, interface design and multimedia systems capabilities of college students into action ensues. The project results are presented, and suggestions for future research are proposed