Human Factors in End-user Development of Marketing-IS: A Behavioral User Profiling Approach

AbstractMarketing-IS research has recently focused on the development of personalization systems that are based on the modeling of consumer behavior and consumer heterogeneity regarding their distinct needs and preferences. However, personalization approaches in the design and development stage of Marketing-IS have not been widely studied in the End-User Development (EUD) research area. The lack of such research studies results in the development of Marketing-IS tools that neglect the differences in the end-user behavior, and artifacts of low performance and reusability. Attempting to figure out how end-users can participate in the design and construction of Marketing-IS in an efficient way, research suggests the ‘construction’ of end- users behavioral profiles based on human factors. Recent evidence reveal that human factors such as gender and expertise level can influence and even determine the end-users’, behavior, and consequently performance, while end-users interact with EUD environments. This paper presents a methodological approach in which we identify different behavioral user-profiles, named ‘user-categories’ based on behavioural attributes derived by the human factors of gender and expertise level. The resulting user- categories can be applied in the modeling mechanism of adaptive EUD system environments. Such an approach is projected to implicitly assist the end-users in the enhancement of their performance during the development task of Marketing-I

The Influence of Absorption and Need for Cognition on Students’ Learning Outcomes in Educational Robot-Supported Projects

The field of educational technology has made significant strides, offering cost-effective multimedia tools and physical resources to facilitate both formal and informal teaching methods in computer science, with a particular emphasis on the development of computational thinking (CT) and programming skills. However, there is a lack of research focusing on practice-based tasks, such as Internet of Things (IoT) projects, for undergraduate students to demonstrate and program educational robots using digital and physical-supported instructional approaches. Specifically, there have been no studies examining the association between students’ learning outcomes and their absorption and need for cognition on different platforms, such as Scratch and LEGO® WeDo. This study aims to provide empirical evidence by comparing the impact of two different platforms commonly used in programming courses to teach undergraduate students how to design, develop, and program IoT projects using educational robots. A quasi-experimental study was carried out to examine whether there were any significant variations in students’ CT skills and programming development, as well as to evaluate their learning outcomes with regard to their need for cognition and absorption when they applied their coding expertise to real-world IoT projects. As a point of reference (control condition), twenty students (n = 20) utilized LEGO® WeDo robotics kits and Scratch for coding tasks, which is the most familiar instructional approach. In the intervention approach (experimental condition), thirty-seven students (n = 37) used LEGO® WeDo robotics kits and their software to learn how to code their educational robots. Participants from the latter group learned how to design and demonstrate the program and showed superior CT skills and programming skills development than their counterparts in the control group who used Scratch. Furthermore, the results indicate that students with higher levels of CT skills and programming execution reveal lower absorption but a higher need for cognition in educational robot-supported IoT projects

The Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure University Teachers’ Attitude towards Ethical Use of Information Technology for a Sustainable Education

A self-administered measurement tool was developed and validated to provide data regarding ethical attitude of university teachers for a sustainable education. The research was based on several factors involved in forming attitudes towards the unethical information technology use. The sample: 334 Romanian teachers’ respondents who teach in the higher education system contributed to this research. A successions of factor analyses and structural equation modeling showed that a second-order model is a good fit for experimental data (χ2/df = 1.75, comparative fit index = 0.958, root mean square error of approximation = 0.045), however the partial least square (PLS-SEM) CFA approach revealed higher scores of factor loadings, implying the best fit to the model. This research suggested a structural model of ethical attitude of university teachers, composed by four factors measured by 13 indices. The results demonstrated that PLS-SEM CFA is appropriate for creating a valid structural model to measure university teachers’ ICT ethical attitude. The current research predicted a theoretical contribution to the field of ethical attitude of university teachers within a sustainable education context

Teachers’ Digital Skills Readiness During COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 crisis revealed the necessity for teachers to have digital skills in order to effectively teach online. Teachers should be able to exploit, use, and apply digital technologies in all educational activities. This paper investigates teachers’ perceptions regarding their digital skills for performing their teaching and professional responsibilities during the pandemic. More than eight hundred teachers participated in a survey regarding the use of digital technologies in their teaching and their professional responsibilities. Indicative digital tools that can be used by digital competent teachers are also presented to cover all areas of the teachers’ professional activities. Their answers revealed that they mostly used digital tools for finding, evaluating, and developing educational resources as well for teaching. They also used digital tools for self-study, students’ assessment, as well as interacting and communicating with students. However, they hardly used digital tools for other teaching activities such as feedback and final evaluation of the students, or revising the educational resources. Finally, they could not deal with long-term planning, management, and development of either their school or education in general. Although it is important for teachers to effectively respond to their daily emergent teaching responsibilities, consideration should also be given to the long-term planning and development of the digital school and digital education in general

The Role of Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Frequency of Use in University Students’ Digital Skills Components

The literature provides rich evidence on students’ levels of digital skills as well as on their frequency of Internet and social media use. Several studies have examined the relationships between social media use and academic achievement. However, there are not any studies investigating the relationships between social media use and digital skills of higher education students. To fill this research gap, this study examines the links between the frequency of social media use and students’ digital skills. The survey was conducted with 155 university students in Greece. The instrument on six digital skills components was evaluated in terms of reliability and consistency. The research findings reveal a strong positive association between the use of YouTube and students’ digital skills on content evaluation and protection. Age and educational level differences were noted in several digital skills components, whereas age and gender were related to the frequency of Instagram use. The main conclusion is that the generic use of Facebook and Instagram does not affect students’ digital skills. However, combined literature evidence implies that when social media are used for educational purposes, they might influence students’ perceived levels of digital skills. Implications and limitations are discussed in the study

STEM Distance Teaching: Investigating STEM Teachers’ Attitudes, Barriers, and Training Needs

The aim of this study was to investigate STEM teachers’ attitude towards STEM Distance Teaching (DT), as well as their perceived barriers and training needs. A mixed survey was conducted on 158 STEM teachers in secondary education who taught their courses fully online due to COVID-19. The results revealed that STEM teachers perceive STEM DT quite positively, but their attitude can be affected by several factors, such as the efficiency of the schools’ digital infrastructure, as well as their gender, age, and STEM teaching subject. The qualitative thematic analysis identified several barriers to efficiently applying STEM DT, including the (i) lack of students’ interaction and engagement, (ii) inefficiency of digital infrastructure, (iii) lack of students’ and teachers’ digital skills, (iv) lack of space/equipment, and (v) increased teaching workload. The generated themes of training needs highlighted the need for targeted and adjusted training to every STEM discipline, as well as training on DT tools and pedagogies. Finally, the results indicated the STEM teachers’ need for psychological support and consulting

Learning Analytics on YouTube Educational Videos: Exploring Sentiment Analysis Methods and Topic Clustering

The popularity of social media is continuously growing, as it endeavors to bridge the gap in communication between individuals. YouTube, one of the most well-known social media platforms with millions of users, stands out due to its remarkable ability to facilitate communication through the exchange of video content. Despite its primary purpose being entertainment, YouTube also offers individuals the valuable opportunity to learn from its vast array of educational content. The primary objective of this study is to explore the sentiments of YouTube learners by analyzing their comments on educational YouTube videos. A total of 167,987 comments were extracted and processed from educational YouTube channels through the YouTube Data API and Google Sheets. Lexicon-based sentiment analysis was conducted using two different methods, VADER and TextBlob, with the aim of detecting the prevailing sentiment. The sentiment analysis results revealed that the dominant sentiment expressed in the comments was neutral, followed by positive sentiment, while negative sentiment was the least common. VADER and TextBlob algorithms produced comparable results. Nevertheless, TextBlob yielded higher scores in both positive and negative sentiments, whereas VADER detected a greater number of neutral statements. Furthermore, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic clustering outcomes shed light on various video attributes that potentially influence viewers’ experiences. These attributes included animation, music, and the conveyed messages within the videos. These findings make a significant contribution to ongoing research efforts aimed at understanding the educational advantages of YouTube and discerning viewers’ preferences regarding video components and educational topics

The Role of Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Frequency of Use in University Students’ Digital Skills Components

The literature provides rich evidence on students’ levels of digital skills as well as on their frequency of Internet and social media use. Several studies have examined the relationships between social media use and academic achievement. However, there are not any studies investigating the relationships between social media use and digital skills of higher education students. To fill this research gap, this study examines the links between the frequency of social media use and students’ digital skills. The survey was conducted with 155 university students in Greece. The instrument on six digital skills components was evaluated in terms of reliability and consistency. The research findings reveal a strong positive association between the use of YouTube and students’ digital skills on content evaluation and protection. Age and educational level differences were noted in several digital skills components, whereas age and gender were related to the frequency of Instagram use. The main conclusion is that the generic use of Facebook and Instagram does not affect students’ digital skills. However, combined literature evidence implies that when social media are used for educational purposes, they might influence students’ perceived levels of digital skills. Implications and limitations are discussed in the study

Measuring Romanian Students’ Attitude towards the Ethical Use of Social Networks

The aim of this study is to assess students’ ethical attitudes towards social networks (SNs) in order to identify ethical norms and principles, which should be implemented in universities. A self-reported survey was conducted on 583 Bachelor and Master students majoring in different domains in a Romanian university. The results revealed that students in higher education express an overall positive attitude towards the ethical use of SNs, taking seriously various ethical concerns such as the use of appropriate language, the selection of the content they share, and copywriting. Students also expressed a positive attitude towards the use of emoticons in their SNs communications. Significant differences were detected between different groups of students according to their gender, age, and specialization. The model of ethical attitudes provides a new perspective on how students and teachers know and respect the rules of using social networks in the academic environment

Measuring Romanian Students’ Attitude towards the Ethical Use of Social Networks

The aim of this study is to assess students’ ethical attitudes towards social networks (SNs) in order to identify ethical norms and principles, which should be implemented in universities. A self-reported survey was conducted on 583 Bachelor and Master students majoring in different domains in a Romanian university. The results revealed that students in higher education express an overall positive attitude towards the ethical use of SNs, taking seriously various ethical concerns such as the use of appropriate language, the selection of the content they share, and copywriting. Students also expressed a positive attitude towards the use of emoticons in their SNs communications. Significant differences were detected between different groups of students according to their gender, age, and specialization. The model of ethical attitudes provides a new perspective on how students and teachers know and respect the rules of using social networks in the academic environment