Temporal network analysis: Introduction, methods and detailed tutorial with R

Learning involves relations, interactions and connections between learners, teachers and the world at large. Such interactions are essentially temporal and unfold in time. Yet, researchers have rarely combined the two aspects (the temporal and relational aspects) in an analytics framework. Temporal networks allow modeling of the temporal learning processes i.e., the emergence and flow of activities, communities, and social processes through fine-grained dynamic analysis. This can provide insights into phenomena like knowledge co-construction, information flow, and relationship building. This chapter introduces the basic concepts of temporal networks, their types and techniques. A detailed guide of temporal network analysis is introduced in this chapter, that starts with building the network, visualization, mathematical analysis on the node and graph level. The analysis is performed with a real-world dataset. The discussion chapter offers some extra resources for interested users who want to expand their knowledge of the technique

Temporal networks in collaborative learning: A case study

Social Network Analysis (SNA) has enabled researchers to understand and optimize the key dimensions of collaborative learning. A majority of SNA research has so far used static networks, ie, aggregated networks that compile interactions without considering when certain activities or relationships occurred. Compressing a temporal process by discarding time, however, may result in reductionist oversimplifications. In this study, we demonstrate the potentials of temporal networks in the analysis of online peer collaboration. In particular, we study: (1) social interactions by analysing learners' collaborative behaviour, part of a case study in which they worked on academic writing tasks, and (2) cognitive interactions through the analysis of students' self-regulated learning tactics. The study included 123 students and 2550 interactions. By using temporal networks, we show how to analyse the longitudinal evolution of a collaborative network visually and quantitatively. Correlation coefficients with grades, when calculated with time-respecting temporal measures of centrality, were more correlated with learning outcomes than traditional centrality measures. Using temporal networks to analyse the co-temporal and longitudinal development, reach, and diffusion patterns of students' learning tactics has provided novel insights into the complex dynamics of learning, not commonly offered through static networks

To Opt In or To Opt Out? Predicting Student Preference for Learning Analytics-Based Formative Feedback

Teachers’ work is increasingly augmented with intelligent tools that extend their pedagogical abilities. While these tools may have positive effects, they require use of students’ personal data, and more research into student preferences regarding these tools is needed. In this study, we investigated how learning strategies and study engagement are related to students’ willingness to share data with learning analytics (LA) applications and whether these factors predict students’ opt-in for LA-based formative feedback. Students (N=158) on a self-paced online course set their personal completion goals for the course and chose to opt in for or opt out of personalized feedback based on their progress toward their goal. We collected self-reported measures regarding learning strategies, study engagement, and willingness to share data for learning analytics through a survey (N=73). Using a regularized partial correlation network, we found that although willingness to share data was weakly connected to different aspects of learning strategies and study engagement, students with lower self-efficacy were more hesitant to share data about their performance. Furthermore, we could not sufficiently predict students’ opt-in decisions based on their learning strategies, study engagement, or willingness to share data using logistic regression. Our findings underline the privacy paradox in online privacy behavior: theoretical unwillingness to share personal data does not necessarily lead to opting out of interventions that require the disclosure of personal data. Future research should look into why students opt in for or opt out of learning analytics interventions.Peer reviewe

Syrian Foreign Trade And Its Impact On Economic Growth During The Period 2000-2017

Foreign trade is one of the main sectors contributing to the national economy. The research is concerned with studying the relationship between the growth and development of foreign trade and the economic growth represented by GDP. This relationship is widely debated among economists, although some research has found a positive relationship between them. A negative relationship. It was noted in this research through the study of the evolution of the Syrian trade balance in the period 2000-2017 that the trade balance suffers from a continuous deficit during the study period in general and has worsened significantly during the war years, and the low rate of export coverage of imports, where the research showed an inherent structural defect In the foreign trade sector, especially in the commodity structure of exports and imports according to their use (consumer, intermediary, capitalist). The study found a long-term equilibrium relationship between the total foreign trade and GDP in the Syrian Arab Republic during the study period and based on the Granger causality test, it shows a unidirectional causal relationship between total foreign trade and GDP. تعتبر التجارة الخارجية من القطاعات الأساسية المساهمة في الاقتصاد الوطني، ويهتم البحث بدراسة العلاقة بين نمو وتطور التجارة الخارجية والنمو الاقتصادي الممثل بالناتج المحلي الإجمالي حيث تحظى هذه العلاقة بجدل واسع بين الاقتصاديين رغم أن بعض الأبحاث توصلت إلى وجود علاقة ايجابية بينهما، بينما توصلت أبحاث أخرى إلى وجود علاقة سلبية. لوحظ في هذا البحث من خلال دراسة تطور الميزان التجاري السوري في الفترة 2000-2017 أن الميزان التجاري يعاني من عجز مستمر خلال فترة الدراسة بشكل عام وقد تفاقم العجز بشكل كبير خلال سنوات الحرب، وانخفاض نسبة تغطية الصادرات للواردات، حيث أظهر البحث وجود خلل بنيوي المتأصل في قطاع التجارة الخارجية وخاصة في التركيب السلعي للصادرات والواردات بحسب استخدامها (استهلاكي، وسيط، رأسمالي). وقد توصلت الدراسة إلى وجود علاقة توازنية طويلة الأمد بين إجمالي التجارة الخارجية والناتج المحلي الإجمالي في الجمهورية العربية السورية خلال فترة الدراسة و بالاعتماد على اختبار السببية ل Granger، تبيين وجود علاقة سببية أحادية الاتجاه بين إجمالي التجارة الخارجية والناتج المحلي الإجمالي

Computing Education Research Compiled: Keyword Trends, Building Blocks, Creators, and Dissemination

The need for organized computing education efforts dates back to the 1950s. Since then, computing education research (CER) has evolved and matured from its early initiatives and separation from mathematics education into a respectable research specialization of its own. In recent years, a number of meta-research papers, reviews, and scientometric studies have built overviews of CER from various perspectives. This paper continues that approach by offering new perspectives on the past and present state of CER: analyses of influential papers throughout the years, of the theoretical backgrounds of CER, of the institutions and authors who create CER, and finally of the top publication venues and their citation practices. The results reveal influential contributions from early curriculum guidelines to rigorous empirical research of today, the prominence of computer programming as a topic of research, evolving patterns of learning-theory usage, the dominance of high-income countries and a cluster of 52 elite institutions, and issues regarding citation practices within the central venues of dissemination.</p

أثر العناصر المعمارية الهندوسية على العمارة الإسلامية في الهند (المساجد حالة دراسية) The Influence of Hindu Architectural Elements on Islamic Architecture in India (Mosques as a Case Study)

ملخص يهدف البحث الى استنباط أثر العمارة الهندوسية القديمة على عمارة المسلمين في الهند، ولغاية حصر الدراسة تمت دراسة أثر عمارة المعابد الهندوسية على عمارة مساجد المسلمين في شبه القارة؛ وذلك باعتبار أن كلا الديانتين تركت إرثا كبيرا من العمارة الدينية في الهند. وقد انتهج البحث قراءة لعمارة المعابد الهندوسية وخصائصها، ثم استعرض السمات المعمارية للمعابد الهندوسية وانعكاساتها على عمارة مساجد المسلمين في شبه القارة الهندية، ثم بين نماذج من العناصر التي استعملها المعماريون في العهد الإسلامي والتي تعتبر إرثا موروثا من عمارة المعابد. وتأتي أهمية البحث من ضرورة فهم العلاقة الوثيقة بين المنجزات الحضارية للحضارات المتعاقبة، واستفادة الحضارات اللاحقة من سابقاتها. وهذا ما أكده الإسلام عندما بين أنه جاء متمما للأخلاق والقيم والمعارف التي عاشها السابقون. ويخلص البحث إلى أن عمارة المساجد في الهند تأثرت بعناصرها وتقنياتها بالعمارة المحلية التي تم استخدامها في عمارة المعابد الهندوسية، كاستخدام القباب بأنواعها والعقود نصف الدائرية في البنية الفوقية المقببة واستخدام الحجر الأحمر مع بروز المداميك الحجرية، إضافة إلى الأعمدة الرخامية التي تم جلبها من المعابد الهندوسية القديمة. الكلمات المفتاحية: المعابد الهندوسية والمساجد، مساجد الهند، أثر معابد الهندوس على مباني المساجد. The Influence of Hindu Architectural Elements on Islamic Architecture in India (Mosques as a Case Study) Abstract This research aims to extrapolate the effect of Hindu architecture on Mosque architecture in India. Therefore, it reads Hindu Temple architecture and Muslim Mosques in the subcontinent. It delves into the architectural features of Hindu Temples and their repercussions on the architecture of Muslim Mosques, showing examples of the elements used by architects in the Islamic era. Thus these elements were an original legacy taken from Hindu architecture. Importance of the research stems from the need to understand the close relationship between the civilizations achievements of successive civilizations, and the subsequent civilizations, those who benefited from previous cultures, sciences and technologies. The research concludes that local Hindu Temple architecture, architectural elements and techniques greatly influenced the Mosque architecture in India: Such as the use of domes and semicircular arches, and the use of red stone with the prominence of stone courses; this, in addition to the marble columns that were brought from ancient Hindu Temples. Key words: Hindu Temples and mosques, Mosques of India, the effect of Hindu Temples on Mosque buildings

Organizational cybersecurity systems and sustainable business performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia : the mediating and moderating role of cybersecurity resilience and organizational culture

Cybersecurity challenges in Saudi Arabia’s service and manufacturing sectors are escalating due to increased digital adoption, highlighting the need for robust security measures and awareness in SMEs. Therefore, this research is significant due to the increasing reliance on digital technologies and the unique cybersecurity challenges faced by SMEs in these vital economic sectors. With rapid technological advancements, IT capabilities and cybersecurity have become paramount, particularly in the post-COVID-19 era. The service and manufacturing sectors in Saudi Arabia have seen significant shifts towards digital operations. This study aimed to explore the impact of organizational cybersecurity systems on organizational resilience and sustainable business performance in Saudi Arabia’s service and manufacturing sectors, examining the mediating and moderating effects of organizational resilience and culture. A quantitative research method was employed, combining a thorough literature review with empirical data from a sample of 394 respondents in Saudi Arabia, split evenly between the service and manufacturing sectors. Smart PLS 3.3.3 was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings suggested a positive effect of the factors of organizational cybersecurity systems on organizational resilience. Organizational cybersecurity systems also significantly influenced sustainable business performance; however, organizational resilience and culture did not play mediating and moderating roles. This study is one of the first to offer a nuanced analysis of IT capabilities and cybersecurity within Saudi Arabia’s service and manufacturing sectors, especially in a post-COVID-19 context. The insights gleaned contribute to the academic discourse and have pivotal managerial implications for organizations navigating the digital era in Saudi Arabia

From a National Meeting to an International Conference: A Scientometric Case Study of a Finnish Computing Education Conference

Computerisation and digitalisation are shaping the world in fundamental and unpredictable ways, which highlights the importance of computing education research (CER). As part of understanding the roots of CER, it is crucial to investigate the evolution of CER as a research discipline. In this paper we present a case study of a Finnish CER conference called Koli Calling, which was launched in 2001, and which has become a central publication venue of CER. We use data from 2001 to 2020, and investigate the evolution of Koli Calling’s scholarly communities and zoom in on it’s publication habits and internalisation process. We explore the narrative of the development and scholarly agenda behind changes in the conference submission categories from the perspective of some of the conference chairs over the years. We then take a qualitative perspective, analysing the conference publications based on a comprehensive bibliometric analysis. The outcomes include classification of important research clusters of authors in the community of conference contributors. Interestingly, we find traces of important events in the historical development of CER. In particular, we find clusters emerging from specific research capacity building initiatives and we can trace how these connect research spanning the world CER community from Finland to Sweden and then further to the USA, Australia and New Zealand. This paper makes a strategic contribution to the evolution of CER as a research discipline, from the perspective of one central event and publication venue, providing a broad perspective on the role of the conference in connecting research clusters and establishing an international research community. This work contributes insights to researchers in one specific CER community and how they shape the future of computing education.</p

A Research Agenda for the Why, What, and How of Gamification Designs: Outcomes of an ECIS 2019 Panel

This report summarizes a panel session on gamification designs at the 2019 European Conference on Information Systems in Stockholm, Sweden. The panel explored a research agenda for gamification design. The panel considered the “what, why, and how” to analyze state-of-the-art gamification research. We present an adapted definition of gamification as one outcome of the workshop to better describe what gamification is and what it can be used for. We discuss “why” and “how” to employ gamification for different contexts. Researchers and practitioners can use the report’s research questions and insights to gamify information systems, identity outcomes that gamification concepts address, and explore new ways to gamify. Overall, we present new areas for future research and practice by identifying innovative ways to bring existing gamification concepts to a more impactful level

Efforts in Europe for data-driven improvement of education : A review of learning analytics research in seven countries

Information and communication technologies are increasingly mediating learning and teaching practices as well as how educational institutions are handling their administrative work. As such, students and teachers are leaving large amounts of digital footprints and traces in various educational apps and learning management platforms, and educational administrators register various processes and outcomes in digital administrative systems. It is against such a background we in recent years have seen the emergence of the fast-growing and multi-disciplinary field of learning analytics. In this paper, we examine the research efforts that have been conducted in the field of learning analytics in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany, Spain, and Sweden. More specifically, we report on developed national policies, infrastructures and competence centers, as well as major research projects and developed research strands within the selected countries. The main conclusions of this paper are that the work of researchers around Europe has not led to national adoption or European level strategies for learning analytics. Furthermore, most countries have not established national policies for learners’ data or guidelines that govern the ethical usage of data in research or education. We also conclude, that learning analytics research on pre-university level to high extent have been overlooked. In the same vein, learning analytics has not received enough focus form national and European national bodies. Such funding is necessary for taking steps towards data-driven development of education