EDUCATIONAL ANALYTICS OF AN OPENCOURSEWARE

Analytics as one of the recent fields in technology-based learning offers many benefits to educators, instructors, and administrators to improve the efficiency and quality of alternative educational materials, and learning experience through tracking and storing students’ log data on web platforms over an extended period of time. This mixed-method study investigates students’ log data retrieved from the opencourseware (OCW) specifically launched for a required academic English speaking skills course offered at Middle East Technical University in Turkey with the aim of enhancing the quality and efficiency of the materials available for the course. By understanding the reasons behind students’ behaviors via the interviews conducted with 50 students on this online courseware, this study also aims to provide useful practical hints to the instructors and guide them to act on future decisions. The analyzed data is based on learner behavior with a specific emphasis on average view duration, likes and dislikes, and comments. This study can serve as a starting point to guide and provide the instructors and administrators about the future of the aforementioned course which is also offered in a rotational hybrid learning format where the effectiveness of online materials gain even more importance

Eğitimde Sosyal Medya Kullanımına Yönelik Yükseköğretim Düzeyindeki Eğitmenlerin Algısı : Türkiye-Almanya Örneklemi

Bu çalismanin amaci, AB FP7 Era.Net Rusya isbirligi kapsaminda TÜBITAK destegi ile yürütülen Ülkeler Arasi Ögrenme için Katalizör olarak Sosyal Medya (SoMeCat)5 adli arastirma projesi kapsaminda, Türkiye ve Almanya’da yüksekögretim düzeyindeki egitmenlerin sosyal medyaya karsi algisini belirleyerek iki ülke arasindaki kültürel farkliliklari ortaya çikarmaktir. Bu nitel arastirma, durum çalismasi olarak tasarlanmistir. Katilimcilar amaçli örnekleme yöntemine göre seçilmistir. Türkiye’den Orta Dogu Teknik Üniversitesi (ODTÜ) ve Ankara Üniversitesi (AÜ), Almanya’dan Konstanz Gölü Üniversitesi (KGÜ) ve Berlin Teknik Üniversitesi (BTÜ) katilimci üniversitelerdir. Toplam 22 gönüllü egitmenle (Türkiye 12, Almanya 10) görüsme yapilmistir. Görüsmeler yüz yüze ya da Skype/Hangout kullanilarak çevrimiçi yapilmistir. Görüsme formunda arastirmacilar tarafindan gelistirilen 11 açik uçlu soru bulunmaktadir. Görüsmeler, 20-60 dakika arasinda degisiklik göstermistir. Toplanan veriler, katilimcilarin demografik bilgileri, göç, güncel teknolojiler, günlük hayatta ve egitsel ortamlarda sosyal medya kullanimi ve algilarin yani sira kültürel farkliliklar açisindan analiz edilmistir. Elde edilen verilere göre, egitmenler sosyal medyanin egitim odakli potansiyelinin farkindadir ancak yeterli seviyede bilinçli degildir. Iki ülkeye göre egitmenlerin kullandigi ortak araçlar olmasina ragmen, farklik gösteren araçlar da bulunmustur. Bazi egitmenler egitimle sosyal medya araçlarinin bütünlestirilmesinde sorun yasamaktadir. Türkler, bu sorunlarin genel olarak mevcut altyapinin yetersizligi ve egitsel rehberlik edici kilavuzlarin eksikliginden kaynaklandigini belirtmistir. Almanlarin çogu pozitif görüse sahiptir. Genel olarak iki ülkede de egitim kurumlarinin bir plan ve stratejiye sahip olmamasinin büyük bir sorun oldugu görülmüstür. Ayrica, egitimde sosyal medya araçlarinin kullanimina yönelik kurumlarin egitmenleri tesvik edici herhangi bir politikasi ya da stratejisi olmadigi sonucuna varilmistir. Social media is becoming more prevalent in educational environments. It is used for enhancing communication, making students more interested and active, enhancing students’ motivation, sharing course materials, etc. in educational settings. Therefore, to benefit social media more in educational settings, their existing potential for educational purposes should be explored in depth. In this context, the characteristic features of social media tools should be defined clearly. Moreover, the attitude of students and educators toward social media is another important issue. For this purpose, attitudes of instructors toward social media at higher education institutions was tried to be investigated finding out cultural differences among two countries in this study. This study included a part of a joint research project named Social Media as Catalyzer for Cross National Learning (SoMeCat) within the scope of EU FP7 Era.Net Russia and supported by Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of educators toward social media at higher education institutions in Turkey and Germany and also compare and explore the potential cultural differences between two countries

Exploration of teaching preferences of instructors' use of social media

With the excessive use of social media in the 21st century, attempts to integrate social media within higher education have also increased. In this area, research has been particularly focused on the aspects of students, rather than the instructors. This study puts the emphasis on the instructors with the aim to explore their use of social media in educational settings. Their respective teaching preferences were explored, from a pedagogical perspective, with the help of a Social Media Toolkit. The toolkit was developed to guide instructors that want to integrate social media in their teaching. This study was designed as a descriptive study and quantitative data was collected from 583 instructors from 39 countries. The participants responded to four main questions in an online environment. Results revealed that instructors mostly prefer to teach their subject at the applying and understanding levels. They frequently use text-based materials and design their courses as problem-based or on a presentation model. They mostly prefer to assess students using alternative methods based on their performance, like portfolios, group works, etc. whilst classical methods were also preferred. Overall findings indicated that any instructor from any discipline or culture can transform courses onto a social media platform thanks to many different and varied features provided by social media tools

Enriching higher education with social media : development and evaluation of a social media toolkit

While ubiquitous in everyday use, in reality, social media usage within higher education teaching has expanded quite slowly. Analysis of social media usage of students and instructors for teaching, learning and research purposes across four countries (Russia, Turkey, Germany, and Switzerland) showed that many higher education instructors actively use social media for private purposes. However, although they understand that their students also use it for learning purposes, and instructors sense the potential of social media in teaching, they mostly refrain from doing so due to various barriers. In response, an openly accessible trilingual Social Media Toolkit was developed which analyses the teaching scenario with several questions, before suggesting, based on an algorithm, the best matching class of social media, complete with advice on how to use it for teaching purposes. This paper explains the rationale behind the toolkit, its development process, and examines instructors’ perceptions towards it

Sorgulayıcı öğrenme topluluğu modelinin öz-düzenleme, üstbiliş ve güdülenme açısından incelenmesi.

With the prevalence of online learning, studies have also increased gradually. A more recent attempt is the development of Community of Inquiry framework developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer in 2000. It explains educational experience with the intersection of three constructs: teaching presence, cognitive presence and social presence with the emphasis on creating a community and developing critical thinking skills by increasing collaboration to create effective online learning. Since it has not been known completely especially in regard to cognitive presence because of being developed more recently, it still requires further elaboration. Therefore, this mixed-method study, specifically designed as an embedded study aims to investigate community of inquiry framework and its three-presence by discovering the effects of self-regulation, metacognition and motivation of students in online course context, particularly focusing on cognitive presence. Both quantitative and qualitative data are collected from the students enrolled in online courses in a well-known public university in Ankara, Turkey. The primary data quantitative were collected from 1740 students selected based on convenience sampling and analyzed via both descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data were collected via online asynchronous discussions from 162 students enrolled in a fully online associate degree program selected based on cluster sampling, and interview protocol via 24 students selected based on purposive sampling. Findings indicated self-regulation was crucial factor and suggested to add in the framework as a new presence named regulatory presence. Motivation was also found essential for online learners to attain better learning experience.Ph.D. - Doctoral Progra

Students' Perceptions of the Use of a YouTube Channel Specifically Designed for an Academic Speaking Skills Course

Advancements in information and communication technology have revolutionized the notion of teaching and learning in terms of strategies, context, and methods. One of the most remarkable tools used in teaching and learning in the 21st century is YouTube, especially in language education. The literature demonstrates the need for elaboration of the use of YouTube in university level language skills education settings. In the 2016-2017 academic year a YouTube channel with a variety of supplementary material videos, was used in the Academic Speaking Course offered to all departments at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. The channel has course-related content input, sample presentations and tasks displaying the expectations of the course, in addition to conversation opening content. This study aims to investigate students’ experiences and perceptions towards the use of this YouTube channel. The study was conducted on 70 students taking the compulsory Academic Speaking Skills course offered to students from varying disciplines in Middle East Technical University. Students were asked to fill out a Google Sheets survey at the end of the course on their perceptions on the benefits and drawbacks of the aforementioned YouTube channel. The data was analyzed based on both descriptive statistics and deductive content analysis. The results indicated that the majority of the students benefited to a large extent from the videos on the playlists of this specifically-designed supplementary material YouTube channel. The findings can contribute to further guiding university language instructors by suggesting the abundance of alternative ways to benefit from YouTube and similar online video source platforms

Students' perceptions of the use of a YouTube channel specifically designed for an academic presentations skills course

Advancements in information and communication technology have revolutionized the notion of teaching and learning in terms of strategies, context, and methods. One of the most remarkable tools used in teaching and learning in the 21st century is YouTube, especially in language education. The literature demonstrates the need for elaboration of the use of YouTube in university level language skills education settings. In the 2016-2017 academic year a YouTube channel with a variety of supplementary material videos, was used in the Academic Speaking Course offered to all departments at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. The channel has course-related content input, sample presentations and tasks displaying the expectations of the course, in addition to conversation opening content. This study aims to investigate students’ experiences and perceptions towards the use of this YouTube channel. The study was conducted on 70 students taking the compulsory Academic Speaking Skills course offered to students from varying disciplines in Middle East Technical University. Students were asked to fill out a Google Sheets survey at the end of the course on their perceptions on the benefits and drawbacks of the aforementioned YouTube channel. The data was analyzed based on both descriptive statistics and deductive content analysis. The results indicated that the majority of the students benefited to a large extent from the videos on the playlists of this specifically-designed supplementary material YouTube channel. The findings can contribute to further guiding university language instructors by suggesting the abundance of alternative ways to benefit from YouTube and similar online video source platforms

Investigation of community of inquiry framework in regard to self-regulation, metacognition and motivation

Kilis, Selcan/0000-0001-5751-2363WOS: 000445311100005Following theoretical frameworks including social-cognitive theory, constructivism and creating collaborative learning community, this correlational study elucidates the community of inquiry framework in regard to self-regulation, metacognition, and motivation in an online learning setting. Data were collected from 1535 students enrolled to an online Information and Communication Technology-I course offered by the Department of Informatics at a well-known public university. The data were collected online through Survey Monkey and then analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics using multiple linear regression analysis through SPSS version 23 statistical software. The findings notably revealed that self-regulation, metacognition, and motivation significantly contributed to the prediction of community of inquiry and its three presence types. The findings highlighted the importance of self-regulation for overall community of inquiry and its three presence types due to its significantly valuable contribution. This study resulted in a new tentative model, adding a new construct of regulatory presence, addressing learners' self-regulation. Further research could concentrate on this new tentative model in addition to the new construct