Recently, at the end of 2019, the whole world was affected by the outbreak of COVID − 19 disease, which has caused massive disruption of the normal teaching and learning process worldwide, including ...Thailand’s educational system. This sudden shift of the educational processes to online learning and teaching has caused many challenges as teachers, learners, and educational institutes are not well-prepared, especially in developing countries like Thailand. This research used a mixed-methods approach, quantitative and qualitative data, in which a google form survey questionnaire was designed in both English and Thai language to 1). investigate Thai students’ perceptions of the online learning experience; 2). assess factors that cause challenges in online learning in Thailand; 3). find out strategies for improvement and overcome the challenges. For the sample of the study, 465 students were selected purposively from two public Universities in Thailand due to convenience for collecting data as two co-researchers were teaching in these universities. Results identified major challenges such as the temptation to see other sites, difficulty in understanding the lesson context, poor internet connectivity, difficulty in time management, difficulty in attending the online examination, poor quality of learning experience, low interest/motivation, difficulty in selecting the area at home, difficulty in doing work assignment/task, and distraction at home learning environment. Among the identified factors for these challenges were distraction due to noise and poor learning environment at home, teacher’s incompetency due to technical, poor teaching skills, unstructured content or no follow-up, and technological constraint affecting the quality of audio/video uploaded connectivity, technical issue or data limit. Students also suggested strategies to overcome online learning challenges such as improvement in evaluation, connectivity, interactivity, content and accessing materials. The study concluded that all these factors and strategies should be considered for the effective implementation of the online education system in Thailand.
•A comprehensive survey of ensemble approaches for data stream analysis.•Taxonomy of ensemble algorithms for various data stream mining tasks.•Discussion of open research problems and lines of future ...research.
In many applications of information systems learning algorithms have to act in dynamic environments where data are collected in the form of transient data streams. Compared to static data mining, processing streams imposes new computational requirements for algorithms to incrementally process incoming examples while using limited memory and time. Furthermore, due to the non-stationary characteristics of streaming data, prediction models are often also required to adapt to concept drifts. Out of several new proposed stream algorithms, ensembles play an important role, in particular for non-stationary environments. This paper surveys research on ensembles for data stream classification as well as regression tasks. Besides presenting a comprehensive spectrum of ensemble approaches for data streams, we also discuss advanced learning concepts such as imbalanced data streams, novelty detection, active and semi-supervised learning, complex data representations and structured outputs. The paper concludes with a discussion of open research problems and lines of future research.
As massive open online courses (MOOCs) shift toward professional degree and certificate programs, can they become a global on-ramp for increasing access to emerging fields for underrepresented ...groups? This mixed-methods study addresses this question by examining one of the first MOOC-based blended professional degree programs, which admitted students to an accelerated residential master's program on the basis of performance in MOOCs and a proctored exam. We found that male students and students with master's degrees were more likely to complete the online program and the blended program had more male students and more students with master's degrees than students in the existing residential program. Students who enrolled in the blended graduate program earned higher average grades than students in the residential program earned in their in-person courses (3.86 vs 3.75, p < .01). The findings of this study provide an example of how new online learning models can serve particular niches, but may not address broader equity challenges.
•Male students and students with master's degrees were more likely to successfully complete the online courses•Time and use of self-regulated learning strategies were key factors in being able to complete the online courses.•Male students and students with master's degrees were also more likely to use certain self-regulated learning strategies.•Blended participants performed better in their residential courses than those who were in the traditional residential program
The existing literature suggests that self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies are relevant to student grade performance in both online and blended contexts, although few, if any, studies have ...compared them. However, due to challenges unique to each group, the variety of SRL strategies that are implicated, and their effect size for predicting performance may differ across contexts. One hundred and forty online students and 466 blended learning students completed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. The results show that online students utilised SRL strategies more often than blended learning students, with the exception of peer learning and help seeking. Despite some differences in individual predictive value across enrolment status, the key SRL predictors of academic performance were largely equivalent between online and blended learning students. Findings highlight the relative importance of using time management and elaboration strategies, while avoiding rehearsal strategies, in relation to academic subject grade for both study modes.
•Few studies have online learner's and blended learners SRL strategy use & grade.•Online and blended learners differed in their SRL strategies use.•Individual predictive value of SRL strategies differed for online/blended learners.•Overall predictors of grade were equivalent for online and blended learners.•Time management/elaboration/rehearsal strategies key for predicting grade.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a massive disruption in the way traditional higher education institutions deliver their courses. Unlike transitions from face-to-face teaching to blended, online or ...flipped classroom in the past, changes in emergency remote teaching –a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate remote delivery mode due to crisis circumstances– happen suddenly and in an unplanned way. This study analyzes the move to emergency remote teaching at the School of Telecommunication Engineering (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), and the impact of organizational aspects related to unplanned change, instruction-related variables –class size, synchronous/asynchronous delivery– and use of digital supporting technologies, on students' academic performance. Using quantitative data of academic records across all (N = 43) courses of a bachelor's degree programme in Telecommunication Engineering and qualitative data from a questionnaire delivered to all (N = 43) course coordinators, the research also compares the academic results of students during the COVID-19 pandemic with those of previous years. The results of this case study show an increase in students' academic performance in emergency remote teaching, and support the idea that organizational factors may contribute to successful implementation of emergency remote teaching; the analysis does not find differences across courses with different class sizes or delivery modes. The study further explores possible explanations for the results of the analysis, considering organizational, individual and instruction-related aspects.
Learning engagement is recognized as a critical indicator in the evaluation of online courses, as it is related to the quality of online education and students' performance. Prior studies have found ...that interactions among learners, instructors, and content were associated with students' learning engagement, yet gaps remain in identifying the internal mechanisms. To contribute to this gap in the knowledge, this study uses self-report survey to examine the mediating roles of online learning self-efficacy and academic emotions in the relationship between interaction and learning engagement in online learning. Data were collected from 474 college students who participated in online courses in China. Multiple mediation analysis showed that (1) learner-content interaction and learner-learner interaction, but not learner-instructor interaction, could predict online learning engagement; (2) online learning self-efficacy and academic emotions (enjoyment; boredom) mediated the link between interactions (learner-content interaction and learner-learner interaction) and learning engagement; (3) both learner-content interaction and learner-learner interaction could predict learning engagement through the sequential mediation of online learning self-efficacy and academic emotions (enjoyment; boredom). This research sheds light on the internal mechanism of different interactions on learners' learning engagement, and provides important theoretical and practical implications for promoting learners' learning engagement in the online learning context.
•Relations among interaction, online learning self-efficacy, academic emotions, and learning engagement were explored.•Learner-learner interaction and learner-content interaction could predict learning engagement during online learning.•Learner-content interaction was found to be the strongest predictor of learning engagement.•Learner-instructor interaction did not predict learning engagement.•Online learning self-efficacy and academic emotions mediated the association between interaction and learning engagement.
•Most MOOCs use recorded video lectures and discussion forums to engage students.•Students enrol in MOOCs mainly to learn a new topic or increase current knowledge.•However, dropout rate is high; ...only 10–20% of students complete the courses.•Instructors offer MOOCs due to a sense of intrigue, altruism, or egoistic motives.•Quality of MOOC education and MOOC business model are some unresolved issues.
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are among the latest e-learning initiative to attain widespread popularity among many universities. In this paper, a review of the current published literature focusing on the use of MOOCs by instructors or students was conducted. Our primary goal in doing this is to summarize the accumulated state of knowledge concerning the main motivations and challenges of using MOOCs, as well as to identify issues that have yet to be fully addressed or resolved. Our findings suggest four reasons why students sign up for MOOCs: the desire to learn about a new topic or to extend current knowledge, they were curious about MOOCs, for personal challenge, and the desire to collect as many completion certificates as possible. Up to 90% drop out due to reasons including a lack of incentive, failure to understand the content material and having no one to turn to for help, and having other priorities to fulfill. Findings suggest three main reasons why instructors wish to teach MOOCs: being motivated by a sense of intrigue, the desire to gain some personal (egoistic) rewards, or a sense of altruism. Four key challenges of teaching MOOCs are also surfaced: difficulty in evaluating students’ work, having a sense of speaking into a vacuum due to the absence of student immediate feedback, being burdened by the heavy demands of time and money, and encountering a lack of student participation in online forums. We conclude by discussing two issues that have yet to be fully resolved – the quality of MOOC education, and the assessment of student work.
Instructors use various strategies to facilitate learning and actively engage students in online courses. In this study, we examine student perception on the helpfulness of the twelve different ...facilitation strategies used by instructors on establishing instructor presence, instructor connection, engagement and learning. One hundred and eighty eight graduate students taking online courses in Fall 2016 semester in US higher education institutions responded to the survey. Among the 12 facilitation strategies, instructors' timely response to questions and instructors' timely feedback on assignments/projects were rated the highest in all four constructs (instructor presence, instructor connection, engagement and learning). Interactive visual syllabi of the course was rated the lowest, and video based introduction and instructors' use of synchronous sessions to interact were rated lowest among two of the four constructs. Descriptive statistics for each of the construct (instructor presence, instructor connection, engagement and learning) by gender, status, and major of study are presented. Confirmative factor analysis of the data provided aspects of construct validity of the survey. Analysis of variance failed to detect differences between gender and discipline (education major versus non-education major) on all four constructs measured. However, undergraduate students rated significantly lower on engagement and learning in comparison to post-doctoral and other post graduate students.
•Students perceived instructors' timely response to questions/feedback on assignments helpful.•Students perceived video based introduction helpful in building instructor connection.•Students perceived instructors' response to reflections helped establish connection with instructor.•Students perceived synchronous session not helpful for instructor presence and connection.•Students perceived interactive visual syllabus as least helpful.
•Overview of the method, results and themes from systematic literature review.•Creativity has not been a research focus for young children learning online.•Opportunities were identified for fostering ...young children's creativity online .•Opportunities relate to increased agency, challenge, experimentation and play.•Challenges relate to reduced educator responsiveness and children's age/abilities.•Further research is needed to explore these opportunities and challenges.
Recent research has highlighted that fostering children's creativity is a significant goal of early childhood education. While there is a strong body of research identifying strategies within face-to-face learning settings, little is known about fostering creativity within an online learning environment. Over the past three decades, most research into K-12 online learning practices has centered around secondary school students, rather than children in early childhood years. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic saw millions of children around the world rapidly transitioned into online learning environments, many for the first time. Much of the research during this period focused on the experiences of educators, with little attention given to pedagogical strategies they employed, especially relating to fostering of creativity. With the pandemic experience normalising online learning, it is important to understand how children of all ages can learn effectively within this environment. The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges and opportunities for educators in fostering young children's creativity in online learning environments. The process involved analysing articles investigating young children learning online for references to creativity using the A-E of Children's Creativity Framework. The findings highlight both the paucity and infancy of this research field and identified several challenges and opportunities for fostering creativity in online environments as well as the need for further research to develop evidence-based approaches for best practice. Doing so will assist educators adapt to an ever-changing education landscape, to continue fostering creativity as an essential 21st century competency.
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