Higher education students’ media usage: A longitudinal analysis

Responding to the lack of longitudinal analyses on media usage in higher education, this study explores the changes of higher education students’ access to and use of technology for learning in 2012, 2015 and 2018. Using an online questionnaire, a total of 5,572 German higher education students participated. Via descriptive and inferential analysis, the data show a clear trend towards using flexible, location-independent devices, accompanied by a rapid increase in the use of instant messaging. This is in line with an increasing demand for digital and flexible learning opportunities such as web-based training and lectures as podcasts or vodcasts, which is not met by higher education institutions. On that basis, improvements in development and application of these digital tools seem crucial for German higher education institutions and should be considered by educational technologists and decision makers. Of particular relevance against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic that started in Spring 2020, this longitudinal analysis provides a framework for the ongoing development and implementation of digital media in teaching and learning at higher education institutions

Open educational resources in distributed learning infrastructures: An international comparative study

Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to support increased higher education access at a lower cost to rural, remote, lower-socio economic students, alongside lifelong learners and time-poor workers who require upskilling (Bossu & Meier, 2018; Orr, Rimini, & van Damme, 2015). The German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has funded the interdisciplinary project ‘Digital educational architectures: Open learning resources in distributed learning infrastructures – EduArc’ (Learning Lab, 2019), a partnership between the University of Duisburg-Essen, the German Institute for International Educational Research, the Leibnitz Information Centre for Economics and the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, in order to explore the development of disseminated learning infrastructures and enable national access to digital education resources. In order to produce infrastructure that is aligned with international developments and trends in higher education digital transformation, nine comparative country studies have been commissioned, alongside Germany, to be undertaken by members of the Centre for Open Education Research (www.uol.de/coer), namely Spain, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, South Africa, Turkey, USA and Australia. The country studies focus on digital transformation across the macro, meso and micro levels, and focus in particular on the infrastructure for disseminating OER in higher education, including repositories and meta-data standards. The studies also focus on national, state and institutional policies; quality assurance mechanisms and key actors; and how change (in terms of funding, managing and promoting infrastructure) is promoted and occurs at all three levels. To date, the macro studies have been completed. In terms of Infrastructure, Spain, China, Japan and Korea have national repositories, including OER, although they are not commonly used in Japanese universities. Canada and USA have decentralised infrastructure, with companies retaining intellectual property rights. All governments have recommendations and funding for digital transformation, however the majority of action is left to individual states and institutions. Spain, Korea and China have national standards for digitalisation, labelling, quality and/or meta-data standards, with the onus on institutions in other countries. The next stage of this research, the meso level, is currently underway

Higher education students’ media usage: A longitudinal analysis

Responding to the lack of longitudinal analyses on media usage in higher education, this study explores the changes of higher education students’ access to and use of technology for learning in 2012, 2015 and 2018. Using an online questionnaire, a total of 5,572 German higher education students participated. Via descriptive and inferential analysis, the data show a clear trend towards using flexible, location-independent devices, accompanied by a rapid increase in the use of instant messaging. This is in line with an increasing demand for digital and flexible learning opportunities such as web-based training and lectures as podcasts or vodcasts, which is not met by higher education institutions. On that basis, improvements in development and application of these digital tools seem crucial for German higher education institutions and should be considered by educational technologists and decision makers. Of particular relevance against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic that started in Spring 2020, this longitudinal analysis provides a framework for the ongoing development and implementation of digital media in teaching and learning at higher education institutions

The Quality Reference Framework for MOOC Design

This paper introduces "The Quality Reference Framework (QRF) for the Quality of MOOCs". It was developed by the European Alliance for the Quality of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), called MOOQ that could involve in the QRF finalization more than 10,000 MOOC learners, designers, facilitators and providers. The QRF consists of three dimensions: Phases, Perspectives and Roles. It includes two quality instruments: the QRF Key Quality Criteria for MOOC experts and QRF Quality Checklist for MOOC beginners

A Comparative Study of National Infrastructures for Digital (Open) Educational Resources in Higher Education

This paper reports on the first stage of an international comparative study for the project “Digital educational architectures: Open learning resources in distributed learning infrastructures–EduArc”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. This study reviews the situation of digital educational resources (or (O)ER) framed within the digital transformation of ten different Higher Education (HE) systems (Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey and the United States). Following a comparative case study approach, we investigated issues related to the existence of policies, quality assurance mechanisms and measures for the promotion of change in supporting infrastructure development for (O)ER at the national level in HE in the different countries. The results of this mainly documentary research highlight differences and similarities, which are largely due to variations in these countries’ political structure organisation. The discussion and conclusion point at the importance of understanding each country’s context and culture, in order to understand the differences between them, as well as the challenges they face

Revisiting five decades of educational technology research: a content analysis of the British Journal of Educational Technology (Junhong Xiao trans.) 重温五十载教育技术研究：基于《英国 教育技术期刊》的内容分析

本文对《英国教育技术期刊》1970 年至2018 年第3 期刊发的1,777 篇研究论文的标题和摘要进行 内容分析，反思过去50 年教育技术研究。本研究采用Leximancer 这种文本挖掘工具分析每一个10 年 所出现的主要概念和主题，并把它们与《计算机与教育》和《英国教育技术期刊》同期被引率最高的 文章的主要概念和主题进行比较。过去50 年《英国教育技术期刊》常见主题包括远程教育教与学的发 展、教学设计的出现、实践者与学习设计者之间的误解、职前和在职教师教育以及教育工作者和学生 接受技术的问题（使用技术的信心、教育工作者和学生的技术技能和机构没有提供培训和融合所需的 空间和时间等方面的支持）。本文还针对今后的研究提出建议，包括研究教育工作者专业发展的其他 模式和进一步探索理论与政策的作用。// Reflecting on 50 years of educational technology research, a content analysis was conducted of 1,777 research article titles and abstracts, published in the British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET) from 1970 to Issue 3, 2018. A text-mining tool (Leximancer) was used to identify key concepts and themes emerging throughout each of the five decades, which were then compared to those found in a previous analysis of Computers & Education, as well as the most cited BJET publications in each decade. Common themes in BJET throughout the past 50 years have included the evolution of teaching and learning in distance education, the emergence of instructional design, misunderstanding between practitioners and learning designers, issues of pre- and in-service teacher education and technology uptake by educators and students, including the confidence to do so, the technology skills of educators and students, as well as a lack of institutional support to provide space and time for training and integration to occur. Suggested future research areas include finding alternative models of educator professional development, and further exploration of the role of theory and policy

高等教育人工智能应用研究综述：教育工作者的角色何在？

摘要：多种国际报告显示教育人工智能是当前教育技术新兴领域之一。虽然教育人工智能已有约三十年的历史,但是目前教育工作者仍然不清楚如何更大规模地发挥其在教学上的优势,也不清楚现实中它可能以何种方式对高等教育教与学产生有意义的影响。本文旨在通过系统综述呈现人工智能在高等教育的应用研究概况。本研究最初检索到2007—2018年间发表的2,656篇论文,根据明确的收录和排除标准,最后采用146篇论文作为综合分析的文献。描述性结果显示,此类论文多数涉及计算机科学、科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科,定量研究方法是实证研究最常用的方法。对研究结果进行综合分析显示,教育人工智能在学习支持服务和教学以及行政管理服务方面的应用可以归为四类:(1)特征分析和预测;(2)考核和评价;(3)自适应系统和个性化;(4)智能辅导系统。文章最后还对以下问题进行反思:对教育人工智能带来的挑战和风险几乎不见批判性反思、与教学理论联系不密切。必须进一步探索符合道德规范和教育规律的高等教育人工智能应用

Facilitating student engagement in higher education through educational technology: A narrative systematic review in the field of education

Developing, sustaining, and improving student engagement is of vital importance to higher education instructors. Educational technology has been linked to student engagement, and preservice and in-service teachers need to develop information communication and technology (ICT) skills and knowledge to apply them in the classroom as well as to develop ICT skills in students. Thus, further investigation of this link in the field of education is needed. This narrative systematic review is a synthesis of 42 peer-reviewed articles from across four international databases, published between 2007-2016 and is a subset of a larger systematic review. The results indicate that the majority of research has been undertaken within undergraduate preservice teacher education, predominantly in the US, Hong Kong, and the UK, with limited attention given to grounding research in theory. This review found educational technology supports student engagement, with behavioral and affective being the most prevalent dimensions. Social networking tools (SNT), knowledge organization and sharing tools, text-based tools, and website creation tools were the most effective at promoting engagement. However, caution is needed when employing SNT and assessment tools, as they were also more likely to lead to disengagement. Further research is needed on how educational technology affects disengagement, how tools are used in online teacher education programs, and how to effectively integrate SNT in education programs

Goal Setting and Striving in MOOCs:A Peek Inside the Black Box of Learner Behaviour

Reaching goals can be challenging, especially if they are not in the near future like with learning in MOOCs. The aim of this explorative study was to get insight in this goal achievement process, which can help to understand learner behaviour. Two research questions were examined namely: (1) what goals do learners set, and do they succeed in reaching these goals? and (2) how does the course of action of several learners look taking Gollwitzer’s Rubikon model of action phases as a guideline? We found that even though learners did not achieve the goals they set, they were still generally satisfied with the knowledge they gained. In addition, learners went more or less intuitively through the theorised action phases, yet typically did not take the time to deliberately plan (before the start) and evaluate (after finishing) their learning process. This insight can serve as starting point for developing supporting tools for learners and personalised dashboards, which can offer the tools at appropriate times in a learner’s course of action

Turkey

This chapter provides an overview on the organization and practice of open and distance learning (ODL) in the context of higher education in Turkey with regard to its historical, legal, organizational and social context and role. Also addressing current student enrolments in ODL and touching upon its major institutions, this overview closes with a brief discussion on future perspectives for ODL in Turkey. It needs to be noted that a main line of differentiation occurs between open and distance education due to the fact that while open education constitutes a specified form of distance education, it follows different regulations in the Turkish case (cf. Section “Organization and Legal Framework”). ODL, on the other hand, is an umbrella term that refers to formal, informal and non-formal learning processes in which learners are separated from each others and learning resources (including instructors, materials, etc.), interaction among learners as well as learners and resources happen via telecommunication technologies