ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Recommendations on Formative Assessment and Feedback Practices for Stronger Engagement in MOOCs
Author: Floratos, Nikolaos
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Formative Evaluation,Evaluation Methods,Feedback (Response),Large Group Instruction,Online Courses,Educational Technology,Academic Persistence,Student Attitudes,Content Analysis,Learner Engagement,Self Evaluation (Individuals),College Students,Course Evaluation

Many publications and surveys refer to the high drop out rate in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) which is around 90%, especially if we compare the number of students who register against those who finish. Working towards improving student engagement in MOOCs, we focus on providing specific research-based recommendations on formative assessment and feedback practices that can advance student activity. In this respect, we analysed some significant research papers on formative assessment and feedback methods applicable to face-to-face teaching environments that advance student engagement, and concluded with related requirements and conditions that can be applied also to MOOCs. We also analysed 4050 comments and reviews of the seven most active and highly rated MOOCs (6 Coursera ones and 1 from EdX) provided by the students who have mainly completed those courses via CourseTalk. Based on this content analysis, we have formulated fourteen recommendations that support also the requirements/conditions of our conceptual and theoretical framework analysis. The results obtained shed some light in a rather unexplored research area, which is the research on formative assessment and feedback practices specifically for stronger engagement in MOOCs. [This paper was presented at the Open Education Consortium Global Conference (Banff, Canada, April 22-24, 2015).]
Capacity-Building in Open Education: An Australian Approach
Author: Bossu, Carina
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Capacity Building,Open Education,Open Source Technology,Educational Resources,Curriculum Design,Minicourses,Educational Practices,Professional Development,Pilot Projects,Course Evaluation

Addressing the gap between global open educational resource (OER) proliferation and the slow adoption of OER and open educational practices (OEP) in Australian higher education, this paper focuses on a capacity-building project targeting academics, academic support staff and educational developers. The conception, design, development, piloting and evaluation of an open, online professional development micro course are detailed, highlighting key aspects of the open design and considerations for sharing and reuse across higher education institutions. The open micro course introduces five key OEP concepts through five contemporary curriculum design topics, using knowledge co-creation activities which engage learners in iterative shaping of the course, and generate artefacts for demonstration and recognition of learning. Opportunities for short to longer term capacity-building which leverage the micro course are also discussed, in response to significant shifts underway in higher education funding and professional development priorities. [This paper was presented at the Open Education Consortium Global Conference (Banff, Canada, April 22-24, 2015).]
Online Training of Teachers Using OER: Promises and Potential Strategies
Author: Misra, Pradeep Kumar
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Online Courses,Educational Technology,Teacher Education Programs,Resource Units,Computer Uses in Education,Shared Resources and Services,Courseware,Educational Methods,Faculty Development,Preservice Teacher Education,Communities of Practice

Teacher education nowadays needs a change in vision and action to cater to the demands of changing societies. Reforms, improvements, and new approaches in teacher education are an immediate need. Online training of teachers using OER has emerged as a new approach in this direction. This approach is based on the assumption that online training will facilitate mass training of teachers as per their convenience and ease and will be helpful in filling the huge gap in demand for skilled teachers. The other assumption is that being OER-based training, it will be easy to adapt it to different cultures and languages. Considering these assumptions, the present paper discusses about on-going initiatives of online training of teachers in different parts of the world; focuses on promises of using OER to make online training of teachers more relevant and up-to-date; and suggests potential strategies for effectively using OER for initial training and continuing professional learning of teachers in online settings.
&quot;The Open Library at AU&quot; (Athabasca University): Supporting Open Access and Open Educational Resources
Author: Elliott, Colin
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Electronic Libraries,Web Sites,Library Services,Technology Uses in Education,Shared Resources and Services,Access to Information,Information Literacy,Information Skills,Design,College Libraries,Library Materials

To address challenges that learners, course creators, librarians and academics involved with OER and MOOCs are facing when looking for scholarly materials, Athabasca University Library has initiated the development of &quot;the Open Library at AU.&quot; This open library is a full library website that provides easy access to open and free resources. Tools and information literacy tutorials are also included to enable learners, researchers, and others to find, evaluate, and use the information they need for their open learning course or research. Many of the challenges that those involved in open learning face are addressed by the open library and the potential impact it can have on open learning and knowledge sharing is tremendous. [This paper was presented at the Open Education Consortium Global Conference (Banff, Canada, April 22-24, 2015).]
Setting the Stage for &quot;Good, Better, or Just Right&quot; in Online and Blended Graduate Courses
Author: Arrowood, Rick J.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Online Courses,Blended Learning,Educational Technology,Graduate Students,Surveys,College Faculty,Instructional Design,Attitude Measures,Course Content,Teaching Methods,Delivery Systems,Statistical Analysis,Masters Programs,Technology Uses in Education,Satisfaction,Teacher Role

Increasingly, academics and scholarly practitioners are faced with addressing the &quot;expectations of&quot; and &quot;demands by&quot; a new wave of entrants to the online higher education marketplace: the multicultural, multilingual, techno-savvy (MMTS) student. The goal of this paper is to share real-world experiences captured in a global classroom (online and blended formats) and to discuss the findings of a survey conducted at an American university. The intent is to stimulate reflection among faculty, instructional designers, and students on what may be &quot;good, better, or just right&quot; for online and blended instruction. The authors explore in detail the perspectives and satisfaction rates of the MMTS student in relation to course design, course content, and course delivery and offer ways to foster a dynamic learning and teaching experience.
Learning from the Innovative Open Practices of Three International Health Projects: IACAPAP, VCPH and Physiopedia
Author: Coughlan, Tony
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Open Education,Educational Resources,Educational Practices,Educational Innovation,Health Promotion,International Cooperation,International Organizations,Open Source Technology,Shared Resources and Services,Case Studies,Knowledge Management,Health Services,Nonprofit Organizations,Semi Structured Interviews,Web 2.0 Technologies,Use Studies,Program Evaluation,Public Health,Interviews

Open educational resources and open educational practices are being increasingly used around the globe to train and support professionals in areas where funding and resources are scarce. This paper evaluates the open educational practices (OEP) of three global health projects operating outside academia--the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP), the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH), and Physiopedia. Each project aims to pool and share professional expertise, to the particular benefit of practitioners in low-income countries. This form of online knowledge-sharing appears to offer huge advantages to the health/public health sector, especially when conducted in the open, at a time when there is a huge global shortfall of healthcare workers and a need for cost-effective, high quality training. We evaluated the three projects using two frameworks--the OPAL open educational practices maturity matrix, and Vrieling's OEP social configuration framework. We identified numerous innovative OEP from which academia, and indeed public health professionals around the world could learn, for example IACAPAP's open textbook, VCPH's trilingual OER repository, and Physiopedia's wiki and use of open badges. However, some OEP--for example localisation of resources--are not accommodated by either of the frameworks we used. We argue that an extended OEP evaluation and impact framework is needed in order to better encompass OEP outside formal education. [This paper was presented at the Open Education Consortium Global Conference (Banff, Canada, April 22-24, 2015).]
Eliminating Educational Inequality through E-Learning: The Case of Virtual University of Pakistan
Author: Din, Aisha Muhammad
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Electronic Learning,Equal Education,Virtual Universities,Technology Uses in Education,Distance Education,Rural Education,Access to Education,Enrollment Trends,Income,College Students,College Faculty,Teacher Characteristics,Student Characteristics,Alumni,Statistical Analysis,Records (Forms),Socioeconomic Influences,Social Class

This study aims at examining the role of e-learning in combating the issues of inequality in terms of access and quality in the field of higher education in Pakistan. The education system in Pakistan is mainly characterized by educational disparity. The standard of education is directly proportional to the investment students make in the form of registration and fees. Another important issue is the non-availability of reputed educational institutes in small towns and villages. Unfortunately, very few people from rural areas have access to quality higher education. Virtual University of Pakistan through its distance e-learning mode has come forward to break this trend in social inequality by providing equal educational opportunities to all social classes through its affordable fee structure yet ensuring high standards of teaching. For the purpose of testing these assumptions with reference to a Virtual education system, the existing patterns of enrollment, income structure of guardian/students, professors' profile, and alumni's profile data were obtained from IT department of Virtual University of Pakistan. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test were used for data analysis. It could be ascertained from the conclusion that Virtual University of Pakistan has successfully broken the chain of educational inequality through its e-learning mode. In case of virtual education, discrimination on the basis of gender, social class and location, is no more applicable. The findings of current research have invalidated the existence of inequality in the e-learning system.
Using an &quot;Open Approach&quot; to Create a New, Innovative Higher Education Model
Author: Huggins, Susan
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Higher Education,Models,Open Education,Educational Innovation,Educational Development,Student Needs,Concept Formation,College Programs,Courses,Bachelors Degrees,Individualized Instruction,Evidence,Program Effectiveness,Educational Practices,Program Descriptions

Navigating learning, formal or informal, can be overwhelming, confusing, and impersonal. With more options than ever, the process of deciding what, where, and when can be overwhelming to a learner. The concept of Open College at Kaplan University (OC@KU) was to bring organization, purpose, and personalization of learning caused by vast resources and numerous options. Focused on organizing, supporting and providing a personalized education experience using open courses, an innovative higher education model was conceived and created. As the concept of developing a college that adapted its resources and services to the needs of the learner emerged so did the idea of integrating open courses into a formal higher education model to award college credit for open courses as well as inclusion in a degree program. [This paper was presented at the Open Education Consortium Global Conference (Banff, Canada, April 22-24, 2015).]
Predictors of Student Success in an Online Learning Environment in the English-Speaking Caribbean: Evidence from the University of the West Indies Open Campus
Author: Warrican, S. Joel
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Success,Predictor Variables,College Students,Archives,Academic Persistence,Graduation Rate,Online Courses,Undergraduate Study,Statistical Analysis,Regression (Statistics),Gender Differences,Geographic Location,Grade Point Average,Learner Engagement,Educational Resources,Academic Failure,Student Records,Accounting,Economics Education

This paper investigated success rates and possible predictors of success among students at The University of the West Indies Open Campus. Archival data were mined from admissions and academic records of students from the 2008 intake to explore retention and completion rates, and for students enrolled in two online undergraduate courses in Semester 1 of the 2012/2013 academic year. The two courses had consistently high failure rates. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data. The results indicate that among the 2008 cohort, the retention rate was high (&gt;75%) and the completion rate compared favourably with other similar institutions. Significant predictors of programme completion included sex and location of the students as well as cumulative GPA at the end of the first year of study. Predictors of success for individual courses included the location of the students and engagement with course resources.
Using Digital Technologies to Implement Distance Education for Incarcerated Students: A Case Study from an Australian Regional University
Author: Farley, Helen Sara
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Distance Education,Case Studies,Colleges,Institutionalized Persons,Correctional Institutions,Correctional Education,Educational Technology,Access to Education,Higher Education,Integrated Learning Systems,Electronic Publishing,Electronic Learning

As universities become increasingly reliant on the online delivery of courses for distance education, those students without access to the Internet are increasingly marginalised. Among those most marginalised are incarcerated students who are often from low socio-economic status backgrounds and have limited access to resources. This article reports on four projects that incrementally build on each other, three of which are completed, at the University of Southern Queensland that seek to provide access to higher education for incarcerated students. These projects developed a modified version of Moodle, called Stand Alone Moodle (SAM), which doesn't require Internet access, but provides the same level of access and interactivity as regular Moodle. EBook readers were also used in two of the projects. A description of the projects, a summary of the results and issues is provided. The projects will be extended to deploy Stand Alone Moodle and tablet computers to correctional centres across Australia with a focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
Word Difficulty and Learning among Native Arabic Learners of EFL
Author: Masrai, Ahmed
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Vocabulary Development,Syllables,Native Language,Translation,Foreign Countries,Textbooks,High School Students,Word Frequency,Workbooks,Content Analysis,Correlation,Predictor Variables,Regression (Statistics)

This study investigates word difficulty and learning among learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Saudi Arabia. Difficulty factors examined in the study include repetition of words in learners' EFL textbooks, word length and parts of speech, and adds a further consideration which is underexplored in the literature; word translation equivalents in the learners' first language (L1). A total of 156 native Arabic participants were given a vocabulary test in which they had to identify whether a word was known to them and then to supply the meaning of the word in their L1 or L2. The findings showed a large effect of repetition on word learnability, accounting for 60% of the variance, followed by translation equivalence, which explained some 23% of the variance. Conversely, word length and the parts of speech element provided non-significant contributions to the overall model of learning. Thus, the results indicate a durable effect of repetition and a modest influence of L1 translation equivalent on the L2 vocabulary learning, regardless of the number of syllables in a word or the part of speech element.
Potential of Mobile Learning in Teaching of ESL Academic Writing
Author: Zaki, Arlina Ahmad
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Telecommunications,Handheld Devices,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,English for Academic Purposes,Teaching Methods,Writing Instruction,Writing Improvement,Educational Technology

The potentials of mobile learning in teaching academic writing skills for ESL students are explored in this paper. Although there have been studies on MALL to improve writing skills, academic writing was never really touched. Few aspects are covered like the changes in educational technology, defining MALL, identifying issues in academic writing by ESL students, approaches used in academic writing and pedagogical approaches used in MALL. Through the discussions, it is proved that mobile learning can be integrated into academic writing by using it with several writing approaches which complements the pedagogical advantages in mobile devices. Based on past studies and the discussion, it can be concluded that the potential of mobile learning in teaching ESL academic writing is high.
Epistemic Modality in the Argumentative Essays of Chinese EFL Learners
Author: Hu, Chunyu
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Epistemology,Computational Linguistics,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Syntax,Native Speakers,Language Proficiency,Persuasive Discourse,Asians,Foreign Countries,Essays,Writing (Composition),Networks,Second Language Instruction,Semantics,Grammar

Central to argumentative writing is the proper use of epistemic devices (EDs), which distinguish writers' opinions from facts and evaluate the degree of certainty expressed in their statements. Important as these devices are, they turn out to constitute a thorny area for non-native speakers (NNS). Previous research indicates that Chinese EFL learners differ significantly from the native speakers (NS) in marking epistemic modality. One problem of previous studies is that the essay topics are not well controlled, which makes it somewhat ambiguous as to whether the observed linguistic discrepancies are caused by the NNS/NS difference or by the topic differences. This paper sets out to explore much more comparable data from International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE). The results show that while both NS group and NNS groups are heavily dependent on a restricted range of items, the manipulation of epistemic modality is particularly problematic for the L2 students who employ syntactically simpler constructions and rely on a more limited range of devices, as already discovered in the previous studies. Nevertheless, this study also shows that the most proficient L2 students modify their statements with less certainty markers and more tentative expressions than do their L1 counterparts, and that all learner groups, regardless of their overall language proficiency, use less boosters than L1 writers, which is in sharp contrast with previous studies. The ability to mark epistemic modality has much to do with L2 proficiency. While lower-band students exhibit a heavy reliance on a narrower range of items for strong assertions, higher-band students tend to be more tentative and demonstrate a more native-like use of some Eds. The observed patterns are explained in the light of the inherent properties of English EDs, the imperfect modal instruction and learner factors.
The Arab University Students' Use of English General Service and Academic Vocabulary: A Lexical Development Study
Author: El-Dakhs, Dina Abdel Salam
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Vocabulary,Second Language Learning,Undergraduate Students,Language of Instruction,Statistical Analysis,Knowledge Level,Language Proficiency,Coping,Student Needs,Females,Arabs,Receptive Language,Expressive Language,Scores,Writing (Composition)

In recent years, a number of studies have attempted to assess the English vocabulary knowledge of high-school students and undergraduate university students in contexts where English is a foreign language (EFL). The present paper explores the lexical development of Arab undergraduates at a Saudi University where EFL is the medium of instruction. The study employed a quantitative methodology. The lexical knowledge of 150 participants from different college years and fields of specialization was assessed both receptively and productively. The assessment focused on the participants' knowledge of the General Service List (GSL) and the Academic Word List (AWL) due to their prime importance for lexical competence in English. The results confirmed earlier findings that the lexical competence of EFL Arab university students is below the required level for coping with the demands of studying in an English-medium university. Findings also showed that production-based instruction may accelerate lexical development on the short-term, but on the long-term both input-based and production-based instruction support lexical development of EFL learners. The study concludes that lexical development of EFL learners needs to be carefully assessed to ensure the learners' ability to cope with the lexical demands of their educational programs. Hence, the study highly emphasizes the importance of enhanced English language support for students at all levels in Saudi universities.