Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p>Inadequate or ineffectively communicated feedback from faculty advisors may limit the development of cordial, collaborative relationships with doctoral capstone writers and may impede their successful outcomes. The purpose of this general qualitative study was to explore online faculty’s use of technology when advising doctoral capstone writers. Yang and Carless’s (2013) feedback triangle model, including cognitive, social-affective and structural dimensions, provided the framework for the study. Demographic survey data and Zoom interview data were collected from 10 doctoral faculty at a fully online university to explore how and why faculty use technology and what technology-related activities faculty conduct when advising doctoral capstone writers. Emergent codes were organised using a priori codes from the feedback triangle model, and themes were developed within these dimensions. Cognitive themes were ensuring accountability and providing instruction, which addressed how participants were using technology. Social-affective themes addressing why faculty use technology were enhancing communication, increasing motivation and promoting self-regulation. Structural themes indicating technology-related activities were modes, preferences, procedures and barriers. Implications for practice or policy: Online faculty advisors may use technology more effectively to support doctoral capstone writers. Administrators of online doctoral programs may provide more appropriate technology support for faculty who are advising doctoral capstone writers. Online doctoral capstone writers may experience improved relationships with faculty advisors, which may promote successful capstone outcomes. Faculty advisors and doctoral students working in face-to-face environments may benefit from enhanced application of technology in virtual communication resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. </jats:p>

<jats:p>This study analysed the level of digital competence of 910 university teachers at one Spanish and one Polish university, using a self-perception questionnaire based on the DigCompEdu framework. For this purpose, a quantitative methodology was used with the aim of finding out the situation at both institutions through focusing on gender, professional category, and areas of knowledge of the participants. The results showed that the university teachers generally perceived themselves as having an intermediate level of digital competence. In this sense, it was observed that the elements selected for analysis (university, gender, and professional category) can have direct implications for the results and that there are significant differences depending on the group to which they belong. Implications for practice or policy: Digital teaching competence need to be improved in the university context. Gender influences the self-perceived level of digital teaching competence and this needs to be considered in the university practices and policies. University teachers at the levels of junior lecturer and teaching assistant show better digital teaching competence and this needs to be considered in the university practices and policies. </jats:p>

<jats:p>This study aimed to examine the behaviour of learners across a whole system and in various courses to reveal the interrelation between learners' system interaction, age, programme features and course design. We obtained data from the system logs of 1,634 learners enrolled in distance learning programmes. We performed hierarchical clustering analysis to describe system interactions; then, we carried out a sequential pattern analysis to examine navigational behaviours by clusters. The results showed that the system interactions (e.g., content, live lesson, assignment, exam, discussion) across the whole system differ by age and programme. The behaviour profiles of the learners changed when different course designs were presented. Learners who interacted more with any component (e.g., live lesson or content) according to their needs were more successful than those with limited interaction and assessment-oriented (those with limited interactions outside of the assignment). In an information and communication technology course, learners whose system interactions were sufficient to receive rewards were more likely to succeed. The sequential pattern analysis showed that the assessment-oriented cluster interacted with the assignment in the midterm weeks; the award-oriented cluster interacted with the content or completed their assignment and received an award. Consequently, it is difficult to determine or generalise the intervention unless the system, programme and course design features are standard. Implications for practice or policy: Course designers can use the assessment activities or motivation factors such as awards to increase students' system interactions. Course designers should not determine or generalise interventions unless the system, programme and course design are standard. Researchers should not only focus on data but also consider the contextual characteristics of data. </jats:p>

<jats:p>During the Covid-19 pandemic, higher education shifted from face-to-face to online education and teachers had various perspectives about remedying the challenges of this mandatory situation. Drawing on the diffusion of innovation theory as a theoretical lens to better understand the change in the adoptions of the faculty during the pandemic, we surveyed 307 academics with an online questionnaire. The results indicated that the adopters in this study were innovators (11%), early adopters (23%), early majority (18%), late majority (22%), and laggards (26%), revealing somewhat different percentages from the values in the theoretical model. This can be explained by the fact that innovations that require an emergency situation bring about changes in the values of the adopter categories. Examining the questionnaire data, we categorised the results as support, functionality, guidance, interaction, adaptation and the features of synchronous lessons influencing the diffusion of innovation during the new emergency teaching condition. The adoption process was discussed through the factors influencing these dimensions. The implications of notable findings and directions for future studies have been provided. Implications for practice or policy: Academics may have better online learning experiences in various designs and applications at universities. Academics may be prepared for unexpected teaching situations with adequate and appropriate organisational, technical and learning support to achieve quality outputs. All educational institutions, academics, and universities in particular, can be guided to adopt technologies more easily and quickly in such situations as future pandemics, wars, etc. </jats:p>

<jats:p>Integration of computational thinking and programming into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes is needed to promote students’ learning of twenty-first century skills. Yet, teachers are not equipped to achieve this integration successfully as teacher education curricula do not generally align with this need. With the Covid-19 outbreak, curricula also need to be adapted for online environments. This qualitative study presents the redesign of an educational technology course that introduces programming and computational thinking to STEM preservice teachers for online settings, and explores learning experiences of preservice teachers, in terms of how they combine technological knowledge with pedagogy and content. Data were collected from course artifacts, such as reading responses, coding challenges, and lesson designs and implementations. The findings showed the online course design was helpful in enhancing preservice STEM teachers’ pedagogical approaches of how to teach computational thinking and programming. Offering hands-on coding practices in the course allowed preservice teachers to improve their technological knowledge (programming), and they were able to integrate their technological pedagogical knowledge into their content area and design meaningful lessons. The study offers implications for design of online teacher education courses that promote preservice teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge for computational thinking and programming. Implications for practice or policy: The online course design implemented in this study can be adjusted into different contexts, considering that fully-online or blended teacher education courses will still be needed in the future. The design guidelines used in this study can be utilised to develop online teacher education modules for educational technology topics other than programming. The question prompts given to preservice teachers in the study can be refined to trigger deeper reflection on pedagogy of computing education. </jats:p>

<jats:p>The scope of digital technology integration in university teaching has changed our understanding of teacher readiness and teacher competence. Recently, faced with the digitalisation of higher education (HE), the construct of teacher digital competence (TDC) has emerged. Although there are many recent systematic reviews on digital competence from a range of perspectives and geographic settings, such reviews often show a limited view of a larger digital competence landscape in HE. The current study on TDC development in HE aims to synthesise knowledge to provide an integrated and global assessment of existing evidence. We carried out a systematic overview, especially suited for identifying, synthesising and critically appraising published reviews on a given topic amidst an abundance of research. We identified three clear settings by synthesising 740 studies across 13 systematic reviews. Results reveal a significant interest in TDC in Spain, conducted by researchers in the field of educational technology concerned with teacher training and teacher professional development. We make recommendations to reorient the field by understanding TDC development through an integrated, transversal and holistic perspective; moving away from basic forms of research; and conducting and reporting research in line with methodological guidelines to ensure the highest possible standards.  Implications for practice or policy: Stakeholders interested in better fostering TDC could complement training and evaluation with an integrated and systems-based approach, including sustaining an institutional culture that strategically supports TDC development. Researchers could move away from basic forms of research design in order to advance the field beyond self-assessment and evaluation studies. Systematic review research can be improved by following rigorous methodological guidelines, including critical appraisal and transparent methods to synthesise studies, to ensure the highest academic integrity. </jats:p>

<jats:p>Instructional videos are increasingly part of the teaching practices of educators across all sectors. The most common theoretical lens used to design and evaluate instructional videos has been to apply principles emerging from the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. However, these principles have been largely developed from research using instructional media other than videos. In addition, there is no comprehensive list of principles that have been shown to improve learning from instructional videos. Therefore, this paper seeks to identify principles of video design that are empirically supported in the literature. A systematic literature review was conducted, with a final analysis of 113 papers describing 28 principles. While some of the existing cognitive theory of multimedia learning principles, notably coherence, segmenting and learner control, have been found to improve learning from instructional videos in a variety of contexts, others, such as redundancy and modality, are not supported. These findings serve as clear guidance to instructional designers creating educational video content. In addition to describing the breadth of research in the field, this paper also found that the development of the research field suffers from a lack of coherence and is in urgent need of clear nomenclature and improved reporting of media and research design. Implications for practice or policy: Instructional videos that are shorter, segmented, coherent and paired with learning activities are more likely to lead to improved learning gains in students. Researchers reporting on the use of videos should provide comprehensive descriptions of media, including links to the media where possible. Designers of instructional videos should critically evaluate design principles established for non-video media. </jats:p>

<jats:p>This paper presents the findings from a qualitative study exploring students’ perceptions of what constitutes technological knowledge. Technological knowledge dimensions from previous literature do not seem to be student-led, but rather suggested by the authors. It is therefore important to incorporate student views in order to create a more evidence-based taxonomy. Previous taxonomies of technological knowledge are also heavily linked to engineering-related disciplines, however definitions for use across the field of education and learning technologies would be helpful. In this study, a sample of student volunteers were interviewed about their understanding of technology enhanced learning and technological knowledge. The students were from a range of disciplines, not just engineering and science, so that technology knowledge for the general student population would be represented. An inductive thematic analysis was then carried out on the interview transcripts. Three knowledge types were derived from the thematic analysis: practical knowledge; structural knowledge; and computer science knowledge. These three empirically-derived technological dimensions were then mapped onto existing taxonomical structures from the literature. Finally, this paper discusses the implications of the student-generated dimensions for educators. Implications for practice or policy: Educators may need to consider how student-generated types of technological knowledge map onto existing technological knowledge structures and Bloom’s taxonomy. Educators can use the types of technology knowledge to target their teaching to their learners’ required knowledge level. </jats:p>

<jats:p>The emergence of mobile applications has opened the door to a new kind of information and communication technology tool and educational support which is vital for students’ positive learning behaviours. The aims of this study were to examine the effects of three mediators (confirmation, flow, and student engagement) on students’ learning technology acceptance and information systems continuance intention, and to explore the functions of these variables in the mediating process between learning technology acceptance and continuance intention. Using PROCESS macro program where the bootstrap confidence interval was adopted, a parallel multiple mediation model and a serial multiple mediation model were tested. Two of the three proposed hypotheses were supported. Business students’ confirmation and flow, elicited by the m-learning app, were two mediating factors with high ratios (0.6655, 95% CI = 0.2635 to 0.6085) of the overall indirect effect to the total effect, which related to students’ decisions in continuous usages of the technology. We concluded that the continuous use of the m-learning app was driven not only by students’ flexible thinking skills in accepting new learning technology, but also by a set of cognitive attributes reflecting users’ positive experiences with the system. Implications for practice or policy: Business students who have positive mindsets for accepting new technology will try their best to overcome challenges of learning unfamiliar technologies. Business students’ confirmation and flow experience elicited by the m-learning app aids in understanding of their intention to continue using the system. Instructors must develop partnerships with instructional designers to enhance student confirmation, flow and engagement for better acceptance and continued use of mobile learning technologies. </jats:p>

<jats:p>In this study, the effects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) focused Arduino practical activities on problem-solving and entrepreneurship skills were analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Also, the contribution of these activities to teacher candidates and their effects on the learning-teaching process were discussed by evaluating their views. The study group consisted of 31 final-year teacher candidates studying in the science teaching department of a university in Turkey. The quantitative findings reveal that STEM-focused Arduino practical activities have a positive effect on improving the problem-solving and entrepreneurship skills of teacher candidates. Their opinions also support these results. The teacher candidates stated that the practical activities contribute to their professional development, support the development of 21st-century skills such as problem-solving and creativity and positively affect the learning-teaching process. As a result, STEM-focused Arduino practical activities are of significance in terms of adopting an interdisciplinary approach to education following the requirements of the century and developing problem-solving, entrepreneurial and productive individuals. Implications for practice or policy: STEM educators should integrate Arduino into STEM education to increase STEM learning outcomes. STEM educators should attach importance to STEM-focused Arduino activities to develop students’ reflective thinking and entrepreneurial skills. Educators and researchers who want to use coding in STEM education may need to consider this article for example activities and implementation steps. </jats:p>