A Cloud-based Framework for Quality Assurance and Enhancement as a Service (QAEaaS) for Universities with Blended Learning Approach

The dynamic and multi-dimensional quality assurance process for Saudi higher education institutes under the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA) demands an integrated framework for management and support of internal quality reviews and evidence-based self -studies in a cost-effective way. Due to cross-institutional involvement, quality assurance compliance with NCAAA standards is even more challenging for institutes offering courses with blended learning paradigm in multiple campuses. This papers proposes a Cloud-based framework to realize Quality Assurance and Enhancement as a Service (QAEaaS) to facilitate the internal quality reviews by providing efficient data management and effective communication for different stakeholders. Architecture of the proposed framework is described with respective features to cope with the identified quality assurance challenges and issues faced by the Saudi higher education institutes

The Application of Multiple-Criteria Decision Analysis to Address Blended Learning Design Challenges

Blended learning has proved to be more effective than either online learning or face-to-face instruction. For many researchers in higher education, it is almost certain that blended learning will be the new traditional model for course delivery. Despite this, designing blended learning courses is still a major challenge for many academics. Educational institutions’ lack of access to blended learning technical and pedagogical support, the large numbers of blended learning components that need to be considered when constructing a blended learning experience and the lack of a universally recognized formula or defined standards to guide the design process are examples of major challenges facing academics who want to implement a successful blended learning experience. To facilitate the design process, this paper discusses the different design challenges that face academics when designing their blended learning courses. It then discusses the applicability of using a multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach to address these challenges and facilitate the design

BLENDED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: DELIVERY METHODS SELECTION

Blending online delivery methods with traditional face-to-face instruction has emerged in an effort to accommodate an increasingly diverse student population whilst adding value to the learning environ-ment. A large number of research studies have shown a positive effect of blended learning for teaching and learning. However, designing a successful blended learning course is still challenging for many academics in the higher education sector. A major design problem is selecting the most appropriate delivery methods to achieve the course outcomes. This study contributes to addressing this problem by: (i) identifying criteria that teachers should consider when selecting delivery methods for their blended learning courses; and (ii) rating the importance of each of these criteria. It employs a two-round online modified Delphi survey to achieve its aims

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Blended learning models for introductory programming courses: A systematic review.

Teaching introductory programming courses is not an easy task. Instructors of introductory programming courses are facing many challenges related to the nature of programming, the students' characteristics and the traditional teaching methods that they are using. Blended learning seems to be a promising approach to address these challenges. Many studies concluded that blended learning can be more effective than traditional teaching and can improve students' learning experience. However, the current state of knowledge and practice in applying blended learning to introductory programming courses is limited. In an attempt to begin remedying this gap, this review synthesizes the different blended learning approaches that have been applied in introductory programming courses. It classifies them into five models then discusses the impact of each of these models on the learning experience of novice programmers. It concludes by providing some recommendations for instructors who want to blend their courses as well as some implications for future research

BERT Models for Arabic Text Classification: A Systematic Review

Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) has gained increasing attention from researchers and practitioners as it has proven to be an invaluable technique in natural languages processing. This is mainly due to its unique features, including its ability to predict words conditioned on both the left and the right context, and its ability to be pretrained using the plain text corpus that is enormously available on the web. As BERT gained more interest, more BERT models were introduced to support different languages, including Arabic. The current state of knowledge and practice in applying BERT models to Arabic text classification is limited. In an attempt to begin remedying this gap, this review synthesizes the different Arabic BERT models that have been applied to text classification. It investigates the differences between them and compares their performance. It also examines how effective they are compared to the original English BERT models. It concludes by offering insight into aspects that need further improvements and future work

Designing blended learning courses: exploring the development and use of a toolkit to facilitate design

It is becoming increasingly evident that blended learning can overcome various limitations related to face-to-face instruction and online learning. Many studies have found that blended learning is becoming the norm for course delivery in higher education, with students identifying blended courses as best supporting how they learn. The question, therefore, has shifted from “Whether to blend or not?” to “how to design a successful blend?”. The literature shows that designing blended learning courses is still a major challenge for many academics in the higher education field. To enhance the understanding of blended learning course design and contribute towards the developing of the existing literature in this area, this research investigated the design of blended learning courses. It focused on two major design challenges: (i) deciding the proportion of online to face-to-face components to be incorporated into a blended course; and (ii) selecting the most appropriate delivery methods to achieve the course outcomes. A Delphi study of two rounds was conducted to identify and rate the importance of criteria that might influence each design challenge. Another Delphi study of two rounds was also conducted to assess the impacts of the identified criteria on the design of blended courses. The results of the two Delphi studies have informed the development of a blended learning design toolkit that can assist academics in designing their courses. The toolkit was developed as an online tool using C# and ASP.NET. The toolkit was also evaluated using a functional testing, a performance testing and an evaluation survey with 12 experts. The evaluation results demonstrated that the toolkit provides a clear, simple and efficient blended learning design process that can foster thinking about how to better design a blended course

Blockchain-Based Applications in Education: A Systematic Review

Recently, blockchain technology has gained considerable attention from researchers and practitioners. This is mainly due to its unique features including decentralization, security, reliability, and data integrity. Despite this growing interest, little is known about the current state of knowledge and practice regarding the use of blockchain technology in education. This article is a systematic review of research investigating blockchain-based educational applications. It focuses on three main themes: (1) educational applications that have been developed with blockchain technology, (2) benefits that blockchain technology could bring to education, and (3) challenges of adopting blockchain technology in education. A detailed results analysis of each theme was conducted as well as an intensive discussion based on the findings. This review also offers insight into other educational areas that could benefit from blockchain technology