Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p>The process of peer review has been central to academic publishing in educational technology for at least 50 years. In this editorial we discuss what makes a good review as well as a good reviewer for AJET. This includes an overview of the peer review process and the identification of key features of a good review. We discuss the selection and appointment of reviewers with reference specifically to AJET, and how decisions are made when assigning reviewers to articles. Current challenges facing peer review both broadly in academia and specifically in our field involve the intersection of increasing demand for reviews (due to an expansion of the number of journals), limited opportunities for professional development, and decreasing time available for service to the academy and community for researchers. We conclude with a discussion of the future of peer review practices and how these relate to future directions for AJET.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Learning strategies are important catalysts of students’ learning. Research has shown that students with effective learning strategies are more likely to have better academic achievement. This study aimed to investigate students’ adoption of learning strategies in different course implementations, the transfer of learning strategies between courses and relationship to performance. We took advantage of recent advances in learning analytics methods, namely sequence and process mining as well as statistical methods and visualisations to study how students regulate their online learning through learning strategies. The study included 81,739 log traces of students’ learning related activities from two different problem-based learning medical courses. The results revealed that students who applied deep learning strategies were more likely to score high grades, and students who applied surface learning strategies were more likely to score lower grades in either course. More importantly, students who were able to transfer deep learning strategies or continue to use effective strategies between courses obtained higher scores, and were less likely to adopt surface strategies in the subsequent course. These results highlight the need for supporting the development of effective learning strategies in problem-based learning curricula so that students adopt and transfer effective strategies as they advance through the programme. Implications for practice or policy: Teachers need to help students develop and transfer deep learning as they are directly related to success. Students who continue to use light strategies are more at risk of low achievement and need to be supported. Technology-supported problem-based learning requires more active scaffolding and teachers’ support beyond “guide on the side” as in face-to-face. </jats:p>

<jats:p>This study examined the impact of a brief immersive experience with virtual reality (VR) on pre-service teachers' self-efficacy and attitudes towards technology in education. The study found that although pre-service teachers were aware of VR and augmented reality (AR) technologies, they lacked experience using them. The intervention had a positive impact on their beliefs and confidence in using innovative information and communications technology in the classroom. The findings suggest that brief interventions can serve as a means for pre-service teachers to evaluate their digital skills and develop an action plan to enhance them. Additionally, the study highlights the potential barriers to implementation faced by teachers, including the pace of technological change, lack of embedding time and funding constraints. This research contributes to the limited literature on the use of VR in teacher education and suggests that immersive experiences with technology can foster positive attitudes towards innovation, curiosity and skill development. The study provides implications for teacher education programs and policymakers regarding the potential of VR and AR technologies in education and the importance of supporting teachers in developing their digital skills. Implications for practice or policy: Teacher education providers should consider including immersive experiences with VR and AR to increase pre-service teachers’ awareness and evaluation of their potential to support learning. Pre-service teachers and those responsible for supporting them can use VR experiences as a means to evaluate their level of digital skill and identify an action plan to develop and/or update such skills as appropriate. </jats:p>

<jats:p>This study aimed to investigate whether web-based problem-based learning (PBL) implemented using wiki applications (wikis) would result in differences in undergraduate students’ relationship commitment, interpersonal trust, knowledge-sharing behaviour (KSB) and reasoning skills in healthcare courses. Wikis have some features (e.g., extensive editing, version preservation and multi-user content editors) that are useful for enhancing collaborative learning, knowledge co-creation and authentic problem-solving in the PBL context. A quasi-experimental design was adopted to execute this survey. A total of 185 students were separated into either an experimental group (EG) with wikis or a control group (CG) without wikis, according to their PBL activities. Independent t tests showed a significant difference in four variables between the EG and the CG. The EG students exhibited a statistically significantly higher degree of relationship commitment, interpersonal trust, KSB and reasoning skills than the CG students. The conclusion of the results can provide beneficial information on students’ PBL experiences for instructors who aim to redesign their course materials and improve their higher education teaching methods. The research findings thus enrich the literature on healthcare education by addressing the influence of wikis on students’ PBL effectiveness, which is an under-researched area. Implications for practice or policy: Wikis’ collaborative authoring function can encourage collaboration. Using a wiki-based PBL approach can enhance students’ trust and commitment. Using a wiki-based PBL approach can facilitate students’ KSB. Using a wiki-based PBL approach can enhance students’ reasoning skills. Using a collaborative learning method can complement wiki-based PBL approach. </jats:p>

<jats:p>Among other technologies, wikis, as a Web 2.0 technology, have been found to support online collaborative behaviour of students in group work. Despite the intention-behaviour relationship expected in many relevant theories, studies have found that the relationship between students’ intention to use wikis and their behaviour in using wikis was not strong. This discrepancy between expectation and actuality is referred to as the intention-behaviour gap. Researchers have explored mediators that can bridge the intention-behaviour gap. Given the study of behaviour across various disciplines, the variables that can bridge the intention-behaviour gap may be situational in nature. The present study therefore explored the effect of two mediators in a hypothesised model of the behaviour in using a wiki for students’ group assignments. In a longitudinal study with a sample of university students in Hong Kong, factor-based partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to examine the measurement and structural models. The results indicate that goal commitment and wiki-based communication, while substantially increasing the combined explanatory power of the variance in wiki use behaviour, significantly mediated the path from intention to behaviour. Both practical and research implications have been provided in this paper. Implications for practice or policy: Teachers should increase their influence by providing students with more guidance on how to work with the wiki. Teachers should motivate students to have deeper online discussion by incorporating wiki-based communication as an assessment item. To remove the barriers to early implementation of a wiki system, teachers should remind students of the importance of group dynamic strategies and their role in supporting collective scaffolding for peers. </jats:p>

<jats:p>During COVID-19, universities are reconfiguring learning environments and increasing flexibility in course offerings. Teachers have found synchronous hybrid teaching challenging with many students preferring online to in-person classroom attendance. Understanding students’ decision-making as to where, when and how they choose to learn will be critical in informing the design of learning spaces and courses. This survey-based study of 369 undergraduates across disciplines explored the relationships between students’ backgrounds and psychological factors (self-efficacy for online learning, conceptions of learning, perceptions of previous online course experiences) and student choices of learning spaces for synchronous online learning. While pre-pandemic studies in Western contexts identified non-traditional student characteristics as major factors associated with students’ choices of learning spaces (i.e., learning online at home), this Hong Kong study found significant associations between undergraduates’ choices, their origin and the disciplines. Logistic regression indicated those who preferred stimulating education and cooperative learning or perceived their previous online course experiences as having clearer goals had greater odds of attending classes synchronously online on campus from locations different from the scheduled teaching spaces. Qualitative analysis suggests personality, self-regulation and the university’s social and organisational structures as factors to consider in future studies of student choices of learning spaces. Implications for practice or policy: Higher education providers may need to diversify course designs to cater to undergraduates’ different hybrid learning preferences and expectations in the post-pandemic return to campus. The first step for online course teachers is to help their students to build a higher level of self-efficacy for online learning. Course teachers can motivate students to take courses online by clarifying their course goals and standards. </jats:p>

<jats:p>People have different attitudes toward taking professional training courses online despite the post-pandemic movement towards e-learning in adult education. Limited studies have linked adult learners’ emotions with their attitudes towards technology (i.e., technology acceptance) and investigated their impacts on adult learners’ engagement in online professional development. This study aims to fulfil this gap by testing the mediating effect of technology acceptance between learning-related emotions and online learning engagement in professional development, and the moderating effect of emotion regulations therein. The study draws on the theoretical grounding from Control-Value Theory, Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and the Process Model of Emotion Regulation. After collecting data from 254 higher education faculty through an online questionnaire, the study applied a partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) for its results. The findings show that learning-related emotions are associated with technology acceptance and emotion regulation moderates those associations. Furthermore, the results suggest that technology acceptance mediates between learning-related emotions and online learning engagement. These findings strengthen the need to attend to affect in adults’ online learning and stress the importance of emotion in embracing technology for enhancing learning engagement among adult learners.</jats:p>

<jats:p>How do we make judgements about the quality of online courses? Checklists and rubrics are commonplace in Higher Education for establishing and measuring design features of online courses. They are created and used by institutions, academics, and educational designers to standardise measures for quality online course design. Despite an intensifying spotlight on quality learning and teaching in Higher Education, no large-scale review of course quality instruments has occurred. This scoping review aimed to ascertain the conceptions of quality being promoted by course quality evaluation instruments and the capability-building resources that underpin these instruments.&#x0D;  &#x0D; Seventy-five instruments used to measure quality in online course design in Higher Education were identified via a systematic search. These instruments were charted and coded. This paper reports on findings that summarise the key attributes of the course quality evaluation instruments, conceptualises a shared definition of course quality, and proposes specific core criteria for measuring course quality under the domains of learning design, assessment and evaluation, usability and accessibility, social interaction, and technology. This scoping review found a concerning underrepresentation of capability-building resources associated with course quality instruments and recommends the capability-building potential of these tools shifting them from compliance checkers to enable skills development.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Smartphone multitasking is prevalent in university classrooms, yet the nature and characteristics of this behavior have not been sufficiently understood. This empirical study explores in-class smartphone multitasking behaviors using diverse research approaches to achieve a more authentic and holistic understanding of this pervasive behavior. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate the prevalence of in-class smartphone use, the types of smartphone tasks that students engaged in, and the modes of smartphone multitasking. Experience-sampling method (ESM) was used to capture the frequency and duration of smartphone use. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was applied to validate the data collected in the former stage. The results provide a detailed and comprehensive account of in-class smartphone multitasking behaviors, including its prevalence, task types, modes, frequency, and duration. These findings highlight the need for educational researchers and practitioners to consider this behavior from multiple perspectives and with a holistic approach.</jats:p>

<jats:p>E-learning modules were developed to enhance student engagement, reflection and interdisciplinary learning in Pathology courses undertaken by students from the Biomedical Science, Allied Health, and Complementary Medicine disciplines. The modules focused on generating multi-disciplinary and team-based solutions to diagnosis, prognosis and treatment/management of patients. At pre- and post-intervention, we analysed the students’ experience of three themes: E-learning, reflection, and interdisciplinary learning. Flexibility and ability to reinforce understanding of course content were identified as main advantages of e-learning but a lack of direct support was a common concern. Visual aids and interactive assessments were suggested to improve online experiences. While all students had a positive pre-conception of all themes prior to intervention, the delivery of the modules significantly improved students’ perception on how e-learning deepened their understanding of course materials via reflection and interdisciplinary learning, with both aspects serving to create a holistic learning experience.</jats:p>