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Novel learning technologies have potential in reshaping the teaching profession by automating some parts of the work. However, teachers' perspectives toward automation have generally been critical. In the present study, we examine Finnish education practitioners' thoughts on adaptive learning technologies and their impact on the teaching profession. Using thematic and epistemic network analysis (ENA), we analyzed 114 social media posts. Supportive posts connected technological capabilities and self-directed or self-regulated learning, emphasizing that technology can also guide and support students. Critical posts connected human presence, educational arrangements, and pupil diversity and equality, emphasizing the importance of teachers' presence in addressing pupils' varying needs. Overall, the role of a human teacher was seen as necessary even with adaptive learning technologies available. Our findings reveal themes relevant when discussing the development of adaptive learning technologies and their potential impact on the teaching profession. Moreover, our findings increase the understanding of how supportive and critical argumentation on technology differ.

The rapid development of technology has led to the change of textbooks from printed to digital forms accessible by students irrespective of their location, thereby improving their overall academic performance. This change is appropriate to the sustainable learning program, where digital textbooks support online learning and students can access material from anywhere and at any time. This research aims to analyze the factors affecting the intention of elementary school teachers to use digital textbooks. Quantitative data were collected and measured from 493 elementary school teachers in Riau, Indonesia, and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that performance expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI), Perceived learning opportunities (PLO), Self-efficacy (SE), and Facilitating Condition (FC) positively affected teachers’ intention to use digital textbooks. SI was found to be the factor with the greatest effect on BI. However, attitude, affective need (AN), ICT usage habits, gender, age, and education level did not affect teachers’ intention to use digital textbooks. This research provides important information for the government, decision-makers, and schools on using digital textbooks at the elementary level in the future.

The switch to emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic became for many university instructors a necessity to familiarise themselves with the institution’s online learning management system (LMS). This switch to online teaching made learning activities, course design patterns, and pedagogical approaches more visible than during face-to-face teaching. Furthermore, the process of translating physical learning activities to the digital space was challenging and needed institutional and leadership support. This paper presents an analysis of the changes made to the learning designs of 102 courses in a university’s LMS before, during, and after the pandemic. Using descriptive statistics and Epistemic Network Analysis we used LMS data to explore the use of LMS features revealing not only the overall university trends, but also faculty differences. In addition, we compared the learning activities as described in course descriptions with the actual learning activities designed in the LMS. Our findings show that although the switch to emergency remote teaching forced many instructors to change the learning designs of their courses, some instructors reverted to their pre-pandemic learning designs after the pandemic, while other instructors did not change their learning design during the pandemic at all. In addition, we identified a positive trend of an increased use of activity features in the learning management system. Finally, we reflected on the importance of the university leadership supporting the digital transformation.

Technology-based supports offer promise for helping elementary school teachers implement Tier 2 interventions to address challenging student behavior. The Daily Report Card Online (DRCO) platform is a cloud-based web application designed to support teachers’ adoption and implementation of a high-quality daily report card (DRC) intervention through the use of professional development resources, guided intervention design workflows, algorithm-based decision-making tools, and real-time progress monitoring. We examined teacher adoption, adaptation, and implementation of a DRC intervention when using the DRCO platform with support from a consultant during the 2021–2022 school year. Participants were 29 teachers, 20 of whom used the DRCO to implement a DRC with a student (n = 20). The most frequently chosen target behaviors were student interruptions, non-compliance, and work completion. When using the DRCO platform, teachers achieved several procedures that align with evidence-based guidelines (e.g., screening, baseline tracking, setting achievable goals, tracking behaviors over time). However, goal criterion changes and shaping procedures were used less often than expected. Despite the option to track behaviors solely with technology, 60% of teachers tracked student behaviors via paper methods (e.g., printed the DRC card, used sticky notes). Adaptations were made by 40% teachers; however, all adaptations involved modifying printed materials to be more student-friendly (e.g., add clipart to the DRC) and did not change the guiding principles of the intervention. Tau-effect sizes for academic and behavioral target behaviors on the DRC showed small to moderate change over time and change in target behaviors showed some association with change in global teacher ratings. Lastly, we identified associations between teacher characteristics and adoption and implementation, as well as associations between implementation and student outcomes.

The research community has embraced computational thinking as an essential skill to develop in school and academic settings. Many researchers argue that computational thinking should be developed in the context of programming and robotic activities in all educational levels of education, starting from early childhood education. However, the factors related to developing computational thinking in preschool education are still under study. Furthermore, not too many empirical investigations provide evidence about the development of computational thinking in young children. The present study examined the effects of scaffolding and gender in developing young children’s sequencing and decomposition skills - two of the five skills that constitute computational thinking. The results indicated statistically significant effects about the type of scaffolding on children’s computational thinking in favor of the children assigned to the experimental groups. Lastly, boys outperformed girls on all occasions, indicating that gender effects exist. The authors conclude that researchers need to design teaching interventions in such a way so they have mathemagenic outcomes for all learners irrespective of gender. Finally, the authors conclude with implications and future research directions.

The application of mobile technology in language education is gaining increasing momentum for its potential benefits, and scholars cast attention to issues such as learner motivation, learning effects and learner behaviors in the mobile learning process. Reflection is an essential part in learning as it can record learner behaviors, cultivate self-awareness of knowledge construction, facilitate cognitive growth, and promote academic achievement. Despite of the wide approval of reflection, not much study has been done concerning the application of reflection in mobile language learning process. Therefore, this study aims to investigate students’ perception of a mobile-assisted reading program facilitated with reflective activities as well as their preferences for reflection modes adopted. The participants were 60 students from two classes in a Chinese college. Students read passages on mobile applications and completed a reflection in one mode every two weeks. Four modes (paper journal reflection, e-journal reflection, audio reflection, and collaborative reflection) were adopted in the study. The study lasted approximately nine weeks. At the end of the program, all students were required to complete an anonymous questionnaire concerning their learning perception. In addition, ten students were selected randomly to attend a semi-structured interview. A pretest and a posttest were conducted to observe students’ language gains. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted with the data obtained. Results showed students generally approved of the effect of this mobile-assisted reading and their reading proficiency improved significantly after the program. In addition, most students favored reflective practices as a good way to stimulate interest, deepen understanding and promote reflective and summarizing abilities, but they didn’t consider it a good method to monitor the learning process in the mobile-assisted reading program. As for the preference for reflection mode, most students favored traditional paper reflection and audio reflection, while collaborative reflection and e-journal reflection received the least support. The findings provided implications for educators and app designers. For educators, based on the understanding of students’ age, learning experience, and possible preferences, they may create a good reflective environment with technical and instructional support, and then provide two or three popular modes for students to reflect on whatever they read. For app developers, some preferable reflection modes facilitated with stimulative measures may be offered to cater to more learners to conduct reflective activities.

About 15 years ago, the first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) appeared and revolutionized online education with more interactive and engaging course designs. Yet, keeping learners motivated and ensuring high satisfaction is one of the challenges today's course designers face. Therefore, many MOOC providers employed gamification elements that only boost extrinsic motivation briefly and are limited to platform support. In this article, we introduce and evaluate a gameful learning design we used in several iterations on computer science education courses. For each of the courses on the fundamentals of the Java programming language, we developed a self-contained, continuous story that accompanies learners through their learning journey and helps visualize key concepts. Furthermore, we share our approach to creating the surrounding story in our MOOCs and provide a guideline for educators to develop their own stories. Our data and the long-term evaluation spanning over four Java courses between 2017 and 2021 indicates the openness of learners toward storified programming courses in general and highlights those elements that had the highest impact. While only a few learners did not like the story at all, most learners consumed the additional story elements we provided. However, learners' interest in influencing the story through majority voting was negligible and did not show a considerable positive impact, so we continued with a fixed story instead. We did not find evidence that learners just participated in the narrative because they worked on all materials. Instead, for 10–16% of learners, the story was their main course motivation. We also investigated differences in the presentation format and concluded that several longer audio-book style videos were most preferred by learners in comparison to animated videos or different textual formats. Surprisingly, the availability of a coherent story embedding examples and providing a context for the practical programming exercises also led to a slightly higher ranking in the perceived quality of the learning material (by 4%). With our research in the context of storified MOOCs, we advance gameful learning designs, foster learner engagement and satisfaction in online courses, and help educators ease knowledge transfer for their learners.

Using ICT-based interactive learning media is a learning method that strongly supports the teaching and learning process for students and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This ICT-based learning media must be easily accessible to teachers and students, and one of the interactive media that is easily accessible is android-based learning media. This development research aims to design android-based learning media on valid trigonometric material and improve students’ mathematical critical thinking skills. This development research using the ADDIE model took 121 Ipeople consisting of expert validators, user (teacher), and students. The expert validators consisted of one mathematics education material expert and one ICT expert. Meanwhile, user represented by one mathematics teacher were involved in validating the use of the media design. In addition, there were participants from among students, which included 118 class X high school students throughout the Province of West Java, Indonesia, who took part in a limited trial phase of 20 people, an extensive trial of 50 people, and a product trial of 48 people. A sample of 118 students came from high school in the medium cluster. So, the reason for taking the sample represents the condition of students both on the island of Java and in Indonesia. The results showed that the developed android-based learning media was valid and could be used without revision with a combined percentage of 87.33%, with details of material experts at 84%, media experts at 92%, and validation by mathematics teachers at 86%. The results of the practicality test on students of 81% showed that the Android-based learning media design had a strong response, so the learning media made were very practical to use. The product test results show that the achievement of mathematical critical thinking skills of students who learn to use android-based learning media is better than those who learn not to use android-based learning media.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are reducing barriers to education while allowing creators the opportunity to share their work with the world and continue owning copyright of their work. To support new authors and adaptors in the OER space, we provide an overview of common considerations that creators and adaptors of OER should make with respect to issues related to copyright in the context of OER. Further, and importantly, a challenge in the OER space is ensuring that original creators receive appropriate credit for their work, while also respecting the credit of those who have adapted work. Thus, in addition to providing important considerations when it comes to the creation of open access works, we propose shared norms for ensuring appropriate attribution and credit for creators and adaptors of OER.

Increased focus on out-of-school learning has led to extended use of Science Centers as learning arenas for junior and high school students in formal learning situations. The creation of learning trails, semantic collections of science center exhibits based on formal learning plans for interdisciplinary STEAM education, has become an area of focus. Previous design research has resulted in the definition of story-driven learning trails that foster flow and engagement in learners. In science centers, equal emphasis is placed on the physical real-world domain, represented by the exhibits themselves, as the virtual components, represented as collaborative positions-based portables carried between exhibits, linking the exhibits into virtual storylines using sensors and control assignments. This defines science center learning trails as mixed reality systems; holistic systems that integrate real and virtual elements, existing on the axis between real and virtual poles on the reality–virtuality continuum. Research has shown that a set of characteristics of narrative game-based learning has positive effects on engagement, motivation, and learning. The eLuna Framework comprises a co-design method and a visual language that emphasizes these characteristics, and that supports educators and game developers to co-specify blueprints of screen-based narrative learning game experiences. Applying thematic analysis and heuristic usability methods to interview data from two design studies completed by six science center educators based on a STEAM enabled exhibit cluster at the Bergen Science Centre VilVite, this research extends the eLuna Visual Language to distinguish between real and virtual elements for the eLuna Framework to achieve its full potential to co-design and co-specify science center mixed reality narrative game-based learning trails. The resulting extension can be plugged into the eLuna method and applied in future co-design and co-specification of mixed-reality narrative game-based learning trails which promote flow in learners, and affords positive effects on engagement, motivation, and learning.

Digital data have a major impact on school practices and play a central role for teachers, including their pedagogical practice. From a research perspective, the question arises how data practices and data-related transformation processes in schools can be studied. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to methodically review research approaches and underlying methodological assumptions about data practices in schools based on a systematic review. The focus is on social science research designs, social science research instruments, and knowledge production methods. The article provides an overview of previous research practice in this area and concludes with possible implications for future research.

Learning mathematics equips students with the necessary competencies, and mathematical communication abilities allow them to discuss and exchange mathematical ideas with others. Correspondingly, research is needed into ways to help students develop these skills. These data were collected from 87 students in grade 10 at An Nhon Tay High School in the Cu Chi neighborhood of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. These students took part in a quasi-experimental study whose goal was to determine how a four-step learning model that included activities using the ACODESA method and mind maps affected the student’s ability to communicate mathematically. In the experimental group, students were taught using the learning mentioned above model, while those in the control group received traditional instruction. To determine the efficacy of this teaching strategy, a quasi-experiment that included a pre-test, a treatment, and a post-test was designed and carried out. The student’s development in mathematical and linguistic activities was evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data that was gathered. Data gathered may shed light on how effective the learning model is in helping high school students enhance their mathematical communication skills. Also, the pre-test and post-test items from the supplementary data files can be a starting point for creating new learning tasks to evaluate students’ mathematical communication abilities.

The global COVID-19 pandemic disrupted face-to-face teaching, having a significant impact on the teaching-learning process. As a result, many students spent less time reading (and learning to read) than they did during face-to-face instruction, requiring the use of alternative approaches of instruction. A combined online and peer tutoring intervention was designed to improve reading skills such as fluency and accuracy. Following a quasi-experimental design, this study sought to evaluated the impact of implementing an online peer tutoring intervention on the development of reading fluency and accuracy in a sample of 91 2nd and 4th graders (49.6% female). Children were aged 6–10 years old (M = 7.81, SD = 1.10) and were enrolled in five classrooms (A, B, C, D, and E) from three schools in the Portuguese district of Porto, between January and May 2021. A set of 10 texts were chosen from official textbooks to assess reading fluency and accuracy. Classes were evaluated in three moments: initial (pre-intervention), intermediate (after 10 sessions) and final (post-test, after other 10 sessions). In order to examine the effects of the intervention, there was a 8-week lag between the start of the intervention in classes A, B, and C (experimental group) and classes D and E (control group). Moreover, classes D and E started intervention with a gap of 5 weeks between them. Students in the experimental group registered significant higher improvements in reading accuracy and fluency than in the control group. Interaction effects revealed that students with an initial lower performance (i.e., at the frustration level) showed higher increases in reading accuracy. Furthermore, 2nd graders showed higher increases throughout the intervention while the 4th graders stablished their progress after the first 10 sessions of intervention. Despite the study’s limitations, the findings support the positive impact that online peer tutoring can have on promoting students’ reading skills, adding to the ongoing discussion—which has gained a special emphasis with the COVID-19 pandemic—about the development of effective strategies to promote reading abilities in the first years of school.

Electric drives have been used in several applications, such as electric vehicles, industry 4.0, and robotics. Thus, it is mandatory to promote updated electric drive courses that allow students to design novel solutions in these engineering areas. However, traditional undergraduate courses that only cover theoretical aspects and do not allow students to interact and produce practical results through experimentation are insufficient today. The students are not exposed to educational innovation, so they have difficulties proposing original solutions. On the other hand, conventional theoretical and laboratory courses in which students follow specific directions for achieving predefined goals do not allow students to create novel solutions and integrate the innovation process as a standard methodology. Moreover, beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced professors to implement digital tools and materials to continue education intensively. This proposed course presents an alternative to promote practical and theoretical knowledge in students. Besides, engineering students must create innovative solutions to increase the quality of life in rural and urban communities, which calls for novel experimental approaches. Electric drives are fundamental elements in electric systems and industrial processes proposed to save energy or control electric machines. In addition, industries urge specialized engineers who can tackle complex industrial problems. The proposed educational methodology can be implemented in manufacturing, agriculture, robotics, and aerospace. Hence, low-cost devices to validate the proposed solutions became used by students to achieve novel solutions using electric drives. This paper describes an undergraduate course called “Digital Control of Electric Machines” (electric drives) and its implementation of the Tec21 Educational Model of Tecnologico de Monterrey, V Model, MATLAB/ Simulink, low-cost hardware, and complex thinking. The content of the course begins with electric machine models and power electronics that allow students to move from the basic to the advanced industrial electric drive problems in a friendly manner. In addition, the V-model and Modelo Tec 21 are used as fundamental pillars of the leading innovative structure of the proposed course. The results showed that students mastered several soft and hard skills to accomplish complex design goals, including controlling an electric rapid prototype vehicle.

Despite the growing importance of teaching and learning computational thinking (CT) through programming in schools, research has shown major individual differences in teachers’ instruction emphasis and students’ skills in these topics.

This study aims to shed further light on the role that teachers’ and students’ programming motivation plays in CT.

The topic is approached from the viewpoint of the self-determination theory, which can help to understand teachers’ instruction and students’ learning. Our sample consisted of Finnish Grade 8 teachers (N = 1,853) and students (N = 2,546) who participated in the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) in 2018. Focusing on teachers’ CT instruction emphasis, students’ CT test scores, and the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, we investigate (1) distributions of teachers’ and students’ responses to intrinsic and extrinsic programming motivation questions, (2) associations between teachers’ and students’ programming motivation and their background factors, and (3) associations between programming motivation and teachers’ CT instruction emphasis and students’ CT test scores. The data was analyzed by examining descriptive statistics, computing mean differences and correlation coefficients and by performing (multiple) linear regression models.

The results showed that teachers had high extrinsic programming motivation, but the extent of their intrinsic programming motivation varied widely based on their prior programming teaching experience, subject taught, and gender. Students, in turn, reported both high intrinsic and extrinsic motivation toward programming, but boys were generally more motivated for programming than girls. High programming motivation was moderately related to teachers’ higher CT instruction emphasis and students’ higher CT test scores.

The findings give a strong incentive to pay attention to increasing especially girls’ programming motivation and providing teachers with positive CT experiences relevant to their subject and with a particular objective to increase intrinsic motivation especially among teachers who lack prior programming teaching experience and interest in the topic.

To enhance student engagement in a French foreign language course, two active learning methods were combined: Flipped learning and gamification. This study aimed to explore the efficiency of these teaching methods in a foreign language course with beginner learners and to assess student's perception of the experience. A total of 215 students were enrolled in this university elective course. All sections were taught by the same instructor during one semester. All students experienced both the flipped learning methodology and a traditional teaching approach. The results indicate that students' scores in the gamified quizzes were better when they prepared in advance for the sessions and had a flipped learning session. Moreover, in a questionnaire that was completed at the end of the term, students reported that they preferred the flipped learning sessions because such sessions helped them to better understand and memorize the textual material. Students also appreciated the use of gamification tools to help them learn with interest.

This study investigates the perceptions of 149 English language students about online language learning at a state university in Saudi Arabia and how this experience has prepared them to continue online learning in post-pandemic times. It also investigates any differences in students’ attainment of the four language skills of reading, listening, writing, and speaking with respect to the online learning experience. Data were collected using a questionnaire with close-ended items with each item having an open-ended query. The findings of the study indicate that, overall, the students had positive attitudes toward learning English online whether during the pandemic or after it is over. However, their views differed regarding the acquisition of the four language skills; learning the receptive skills of reading and listening online was perceived positively, while learning the productive skills of writing and speaking online was perceived negatively as a result of the online learning mode. The study concludes that more advanced technical features are needed to be introduced onto online learning platforms for more effective learning outcomes and that the current platforms at universities fall somewhat short of the English language students’ needs.

The primary objective of this research is to explore the literature on blockchain technology and its investment opportunity in the education sector. Studies on the investment opportunities of blockchain technology in education have remained limited and little is known about the existing state of knowledge and practice of blockchain technology in the education sector of Saudi Arabia, especially for its sustainable development. In this study, the author tried to synthesise literature on blockchain technology to understand the difficulties and prospects of this technology in Saudi Arabia. A total of 15 empirical studies from 2017 to 2020 were reviewed. The descriptive and thematic analysis identified four types of challenges of blockchain technology in the education sector. They include leaking privacy and security, processing cost, setting the boundaries, and weakening school credentials. The review also revealed several opportunities for adopting blockchain technology such as certifying identity authentication, improving learning assessment, maintaining student records, enhancing trust, and reducing costs. Implications and recommendations related to education for sustainable development are provided accordingly.

The use of immersive virtual reality for learning is a growing opportunity that has so far suffered from limited application in the classroom, particularly with students in the 11 to 12 year bracket. Due to more concern being shown toward usability rather educational goals, mixed feelings exist about the technology’s ability to teach. Meanwhile, historical games usually have fun as the main or sole objective, which may cause problems by diminishing the value of the depicted cultural heritage and supersede the intended learning outcomes of the experience. This research aims to contribute toward this gap by working closely with teachers in developing an immersive virtual reality learning experience to teach prehistoric intangible cultural heritage to history students aged 11 to 12 years. The research question of this study is how to go about designing an immersive learning experience for secondary school teachers to teach 11 to 12 year old students about prehistoric cultural heritage on which very little documented evidence is available. To this end, the Re-Live History project was built upon a virtual reality navigation experience of a Maltese Neolithic hypogeum, adding a representation of intangible cultural heritage in the form of human behavior. A content requirement study from heritage experts’ perspective was carried out, followed by a similar study from the history teachers’ perspective. These provided which learning outcomes can be potentially addressed by the immersive learning experience, what form of intangible cultural heritage can be represented, and what success criteria were to be used for its evaluation. A prototype of the experience was then developed and reviewed by the heritage experts and subsequently developed into the experience evaluated by teachers and heads of department. Evaluation was carried out in terms of authenticity relative to the historic site, ease of navigation, impact in terms of achievable learning outcomes, and utility in the classroom. This ensured that educational objectives were given priority and should help teachers embrace and adopt the technology in the classroom. Future work should pilot the use of the IVR in the classroom and provide further empirical evidence to its ability to help such students achieve the learning outcomes expected by the syllabus.

This study has assessed the role of reading, writing, and arithmetic teaching among adult learners in Saudi Arabia. A quantitative approach was used by recruiting 186 students divided into three groups, namely, the write to learn (WTL) group, traditional teaching group, and individual technology use (ITU) group. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for the analysis of the arithmetic and literacy test scores of the students. The findings showed that the performance of the WTL group was most effective among the three groups. The results showed that the learning capacity of adults could be improved by refining their writing and reading skills. The formative feedback, collaborative environment, and engagement helped improve the learning scores. It shows that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) should be accurately implemented along with the formation of a collaborative environment.