An empirical evaluation of e-learning usage in the higher education context

[EN] E-learning has been adopted for several years in Greece and abroad, and it is considered an integral part of blended learning. E-learning systems accumulate a vast amount of data which may be very valuable. The educational organizations may exploit the power provided by e-learning, if they analyze the usage and the content of the courses. An early assessment of the of e-courses use may provide useful information to the educators, in order to make educational interventions in their teaching material. This study suggests that the evaluation of e-learning usage may be carried out with the assesment of variables and metrics related to teacher training material and student trafficking. We propose three metrics which are combined efficiently, in order to quantify the quality characteristics of the courses and offer useful insights about the educational material and e-learning usage. This case study was implemented in the e-class platform of a Greek Higher Education educational institute. This platform created by the Greek Universities Network (GUNET) is very popular in Greece, since the majority of the Greek universities have adopted it. The results of our study confirmed the validity of our suggested approach, and highlighted the need for a more learnercentered focus and active participation of the students.Petasakis, I.; Kontogiannis, S.; Gounopoulos, E.; Kazanidis, I.; Valsamidis, S. (2020). An empirical evaluation of e-learning usage in the higher education context. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 291-300. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2019.2019.10147OCS29130

Blended Learning Evaluation In Higher Education Courses

Although traditional learning was a necessity for centuries and distance learning is sometimes the only way for learning for many learners, the last two decades a supplementary mode to the other modes of learning emerged, the e-learning. However, the last few years, blended learning has dominated as the only mode which combines perfectly the advantages of the other modes of learning. The role of educational content in blended learning is crucial. The key factor to success is high quality educational content, appropriate for learning and able to fulfill course educational aims and objectives. Most of the times it is not an easy task to give feedback to instructors about the online educational content.  However, some course characteristics and students’ actions may reflect the quality and quantity of the educational content. This study evaluates the use of blended learning in TEI of West Macedonia with the use of structured questionnaires exposed to the learners. The learners express their attitude about how useful the blended learning is and how this blended means facilitates their studies. It proposes two variables Richness and Usefulness, taking into account statistics concerning the courses. These variables aim to help course instructors and administrators review course usage and find course weaknesses. Keywords: Blended learning, evaluation, questionnaire, richness, usefulnes

The Impact of the Digital Divide on the Adoption of e-Government in Greece

The adoption of e-government services and the active e-participation of citizens may be affected by the pre-dominant socio-economic inequalities. The current study examined the impact of the digital divide to the use of e-government and e-participation services. We used the micro-data from the national survey on the use of Information and Communication Technologies by the Greek households and individuals. This survey was conducted by the Greek Statistical Authority in 2017, in a representative sample of the Greek population (n = 3321). We analyzed the data using logistic regression equations. According to the results, the social exclusion factors may influence the use of e-government services. The most important socio-economic factors affecting the decision to use e-government services are the educational level, age and citizenship. The e-participation of the citizens in various democratic processes is only influenced by their educational attainment. This work highlights the impact of the digital divide to every aspect of our digital life. The state should implement policies to address the digital divide focusing on the vulnerable social subgroups, such as the low-educated and older people. The findings of our research may help the policymakers to conceptualize the effect of the digital divide to e-government adoption, in a multidimensional and integrative way. Keywords: e-government, Greece, digital divide, e-services, digital skill

**FULL TITLE** ASP Conference Series, Vol. **VOLUME**, **YEAR OF PUBLICATION** **NAMES OF EDITORS** Comparative analysis of oscillations of a solar quiet region using multi-wavelength observations

Abstract. We analyze the temporal behavior of a solar quiet region using a set of multi-wavelength observations obtained during a coordinated campaign. The observations were acquired by the ground-based Dutch Open Telescope (DOT), the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) on-board SoHO and the UV filters of the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE). A large range of height in the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere is covered by these instruments. We investigate the oscillation properties of the intensities and velocities in distinct regions of the quiet Sun, i.e. internetwork, bright points (NBP) defining the network boundaries and dark mottles forming a well-defined rosette, as observed by the different instruments and in the different heights. The variations of the intensities and velocities are studied with wavelet analysis. The aim of our work is to find similarities and/or differences in the oscillatory phenomena observed in the different examined regions, as well as comprehensive information on the interaction of the oscillations and the magnetic field

Spectral Background-Subtracted Activity Maps

High-resolution solar spectroscopy provides a wealth of information from photospheric and chromospheric spectral lines. However, the volume of data easily exceeds hundreds of millions of spectra on a single observation day. Therefore, methods are needed to identify spectral signatures of interest in multidimensional datasets. Background-subtracted activity maps (BaSAMs) have previously been used to locate features of solar activity in time series of images and filtergrams. This research note shows how this method can be extended and adapted to spectral data.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, initial version submitted to Research Notes of the AA

Active Region Photospheric Magnetic Properties Derived from Line-of-sight and Radial Fields

The effect of using two representations of the normal-to-surface magnetic field to calculate photospheric measures that are related to active region (AR) potential for flaring is presented. Several AR properties were computed using line-of-sight (Blos) and spherical-radial (Br) magnetograms from the Spaceweather HMI Active Region Patch (SHARP) products of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, characterizing the presence and features of magnetic polarity inversion lines, fractality, and magnetic connectivity of the AR photospheric field. The data analyzed corresponds to ≈4,000 AR observations, achieved by randomly selecting 25% of days between September 2012 and May 2016 for analysis at 6-hr cadence. Results from this statistical study include: i) the Br component results in a slight upwards shift of property values in a manner consistent with a field-strength underestimation by the Blos component; ii) using the Br component results in significantly lower inter-property correlation in one-third of the cases, implying more independent information about the state of the AR photospheric magnetic field; iii) flaring rates for each property vary between the field components in a manner consistent with the differences in property-value ranges resulting from the components; iv)flaring rates generally increase for higher values of properties, except Fourier spectral power index that has flare rates peaking around a value of 5=3. These findings indicate that there may be advantages in using Br rather than Blos in calculating flare-related AR magnetic properties, especially for regions located far from central meridian