A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF A CROWD WISDOM ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY PLATFORM ON STUDENT LEARNING

The use of collective intelligence applications in educational settings has been reported in the literature for almost two decades. These collective intelligence applications aggregate individual knowledge via different synchronous and asynchronous mode of communications and Web 2.0 applications which support learning, communication and collaboration activities, and create “Wisdom of the Crowds”. Crowdsourcing further extends these collective intelligence processes in a distributed and crossorganizational way. This paper evaluates the effects and impacts of crowd wisdom applications on a peer assisted learning support service titled Peer-Assisted Learning scheme using Supplemental Instruction (PALSI) in a higher education institution in Hong Kong. Adopting the Design Science approach, an Online Learning Community (OLC) platform was developed tap on the Wisdom of Crowds and its effectiveness on student learning was evaluated. The OLC platform is not designed to replace existing face-to-face PALSI learning sessions and activities. Rather it helps to provide an additional online platform for supplementing and facilitating interaction between student mentors and mentees and among student mentees as well. The OLC platform is designed in a way that supports indexed and search functions who join the PALSI scheme, and it can also be archived as a repository for future reference by similar courses. Empirical analysis was carried out to evaluate the relationship between user participation and assessment results. Statistics show that students who made use of the OLC platform obtained better grades

MOOCs and Foucault’s Heterotopia: On Community and Self-Efficacy

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) present challenges for individual student self-efficacy and relational communities of learners. Faucault’s concept of the “heterotopia” is examined as a lens of the no-place place by which barriers between the individual and the community are called into question as seemingly disparate concepts. Contextually mitigated with Freire’s “problem-posing” and Siemens’ “connectivism,” it is further argued that self-efficacy and relational community are congruous and dependent entities which provide insight to the future of digital architecture

Effective instructional strategies and technology use in blended learning: A case study

This case study explored effective instructional strategies and technology use in blended learning (BL) in a graduate course in the USA. Varied forms of data were collected, including (1) semi-structured interviews with students, (2) mid-term and final course evaluations, (3) two rounds of online debates, (4) four weeks of online reflection journals, and (5) the instructor\u27s reflections. Thematical analysis and descriptive statistics were conducted to analyze qualitative and quantitative data respectively. Multiple methods were employed to establish trustworthiness of the study. Effective and ineffective instructional strategies and technology uses were identified in BL. The findings indicated that students valued real-time interactions with peers and the instructor. However, inappropriate asynchronous discussions were considered less effective in BL. In addition, immediate feedback from peers and the instructor motivated learners and improved the quality of their work. Learning technologies played a critical role in BL, but the use of learning technologies should be simplified and streamlined. Technical support was essential to reduce learners\u27 cognitive load

Online Distance Learning in Higher Education: E-learning Readiness as a Predictor of Academic Achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between e-learning readiness and academic achievement in an online course in higher-level education. The survey method was employed when collecting the study data, and the data-collection instrument used was the E-Learning Readiness Scale. The scale comprises 33 items and six sub-dimensions, including (1) computer self-efficacy, (2) internet self-efficacy, (3) online self-efficacy, (4) self-directed learning, (5) learner control, (6) motivation toward e-learning. The study participants comprised 153 freshmen who were taking an online English as a Foreign Language course. A relational model is proposed in this study to measure the predicted levels of readiness on academic achievement in online learning. Reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, linear regression analysis, and structural equation modelling were used to analyze and model the study data. Results indicated that self-directed learning is the strongest predictor of academic achievement, while motivation toward e-learning was found to be another predictor of academic achievement. Internet/online/computer self-efficacy and learner control were not found to be among significant predictors of academic achievement. It is concluded that, especially with the spread of Covid-19 worldwide, education is currently switching from face-to-face to online learning in an immediate and unexpected way; therefore e-learning readiness has to be carefully taken into consideration within this new educational paradigm

Interaction Processes in Collaborative Learning Networks: A Social Interdependence Perspective

Information systems and communication tools such as online discussions forums are increasingly replacing traditional instructor-led learning methods with collaborative learning networks. Collaborative learning networks emphasize the distributed nature of learning and community-based sharing of knowledge, where people connect and collectively contribute knowledge to a learning community. However, the value realized through collaborative learning depends on social interaction processes that take place among members of a learning network. The aim of this paper is to present our ongoing research on social interaction processes, their determinants, and their effects on individual and group learning performance. We investigate the role of different social interaction processes in collaborative learning networks, where students’ learning is derived from (instead of with) the learning community. As a result, we aim to offer theoretical insights into how collaborative learning networks enhance the learning outcomes of both the individual and group

YouTube teaching materials with peer support to improve students' mastery of subject content learning

This study investigated the effectiveness of using YouTube teaching materials with peer support on students’ mastery of subject content learning, motivation, obstacles, and benefits they acquired in learning through this media. This study involved 60 undergraduate students attending the English Language Teaching Method Course (ELTMC) at a university in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The study used mixed methods: quantitative and qualitative. A quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design was used to see the effectiveness of using YouTube teaching materials with peer support and without peer support on students’ mastery of the course. The instruments used to collect the data were tests and an open-ended questionnaire. The findings revealed that using YouTube teaching materials with peer support significantly improved students’ mastery of the subject content of ELTMC compared to those without peer support. The study also reported that only 13 of 30 students had problems learning the subject via the media in the experimental group with peer support. The problems were the speed of speaking by the native speakers, lengthy videos, different English accents that were difficult to absorb, and unclear video sounds. Meanwhile, the benefits include the presence of the native speakers in the videos who are creative and accurate in the language being learned (i.e., English), the joy and positive challenges they got from watching the videos and having discussions afterward with peers. The availability of peer assistance enabled students to comprehend the teaching material delivered through actual media on YouTube on a deeper level

Team-Driven, Real World Simulation for Professional Instruction: The Transcendtal Leader Trains Using Games

This article presents a seven-step model, based on the transcendental leadership paradigm, for organizational practitioners and researchers to use when exploring simulations/games. Instructors of applied leadership who wish to accelerate learning among their adult learners can implement the problem-based, teaming, value-adding instructional activity model. The actions described in the model are consistent with the transcendental leadership paradigm. This approach means greater impact and reinforcement for the paradigm

Psychology and the research enterprise: Moving beyond the enduring hegemony of positivism

Almost since its inception, psychology has embraced the positivist orientation of the natural sciences. The research enterprise in psychology has reinforced this through its insistence that psychological science is objective, generalisable, and value free (or neutral). Consequently, experimental designs are privileged over other forms of enquiry and alternate epistemologies, methodologies, and methods remain marginalised within the discipline. We argue that alternate methodologies, and the philosophies that underpin the research endeavour, should be included in mainstream psychology programmes so that the existing imbalance is rectified. Achieving this balance will mean that psychology will be better positioned to address applied research problems and students will graduate with the skills and knowledge that they will need in the multidisciplinary workforce they will enter. We discuss recommendations for how psychology in Australia can move towards embracing methodological and epistemological pluralism. Breen, L. & Darlaston-Jones, D. (2008). Psychology and the research enterprise: Moving beyond the enduring hegemony of positivism. Australian Journal of Psychology, 60 (S1), 107-208. doi:10.1080/0004953080238555

Year of the Golden Jubilee: Culture Change in the Past, Present and Future

Part 1 of the IACCP Proceedings contains the abstracts and links to the recordings of the XXVI Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2022. (c) 2023, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychologyhttps://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/iaccp_proceedings/1011/thumbnail.jp