Bridges and Mediation in Higher Distance Education

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are web platforms where educational content is delivered, along with tools to support individual study. Logs that record how students interact with the platform are collected daily, so automated methods can be used to extract useful knowledge from these data. All stakeholders involved in the learning activities of the VLEs, especially students and teachers, can benefit from the insights derived from the educational data and valuable information can be extracted using machine learning algorithms. Usually, educational data are examined as stationary data using conventional batch methods. However, these data are non-stationary by nature and could be better treated as data streams. This paper reports the results of a classification study in which Random Forests, applied in both batch and adaptive mode, are used to build a model for predicting student exam failure/success. In addition, an analysis of the most important features is performed to detect the most discriminating attributes related to the student’s result. Experiments conducted on a subset of the Open University Learning Analytics (OULAD) dataset demonstrate the reliability of the adaptive version of Random Forest in accurately classifying the evolving educational data.

In the present work, we describe the development of a Facial Expressions Recognition (FER) system able to recognize cognitive emotions in a distance education context. In this case, many research works show that the recognition of basic emotions is not enough and that recognizing emotions more related to the presence/lack of engagement and flow would be more appropriate. Therefore, we developed a FER system able to classify the following cognitive emotions: enthusiasm, interest, surprise, boredom, perplexity, frustration, and the neutral one. After several experiments, we tested which was the best combination of features and the best algorithm for our classification problem. Results show that the combination of Action Units and gaze and a Multiclass Support Vector Machine achieves the best accuracy on the dataset. Results are encouraging and we plan to integrate the system into an e-learning platform to create a more personalized educational environment.

Learning Analytics (LA) is a relatively novel method for automated data collection and analysis with promising opportunities to improve teaching and learning processes, widely used in educational research and practice. Moreover, with the elevated use of videos in teaching and learning processes the importance of the analysis of video data increases. In turn, video analytics presents us with opportunities as well as challenges. However, to make full use of its potential often additional data is needed from multiple other sources. On the other hand, existing data also requires context and design-awareness for the analysis. Based on the existing landscape in LA, namely in video-analytics, this article presents a proof-of-concept study connecting cognitive theory-driven analysis of videos and semi-automated student feedback to enable further inclusion of interaction data and learning outcomes to inform video design but also to build teacher dashboards. This paper is an exploratory study analysing relationship between semi-automated student feedback (on several scales on the perceived educational value of videos), video engagement, video duration and theory-driven video annotations. Results did not indicate a significant relationship between different video designs and student feedback; however, findings show some correlation between the number of visualisations and video designs. The results can design implications as well as inform the researchers and practitioners in the field.

The failure of learners to obtain sufficient knowledge is caused by various factors, such as the difficulty level and quality of the learning materials and learner’s prior knowledge. The use of the learner’s learning log and biological information, such as the brain waves, heart rate, and eye movements during learning, makes it possible to detect the factors. If different brain waves can be measured according to the difficulty level of task execution, the difficulty level of e-learning materials can be adjusted so that the optimum learning effect can be obtained for each student. In this study, a system that obtains the learning logs during learning has been proposed. However, the learning time is insufficient to understand the learning state of the learners. For example, if the learning time is short, whether the learning materials were too easy or too difficult to abandon cannot be determined. Therefore, we propose a system and a method for estimating the learning state of the learners by comprehensively analyzing his/her learning history and brain wave. Moreover, we evaluate the learning state of high school students learning the C and Scratch programming languages using the proposed method. Also, by comparing the estimated results with those obtained from the questionnaire administered after the experiments, we evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed method.

This project explored how virtual reality (VR) can be used in artificial intelligence (AI) education. A prototype VR application was developed to give students an introduction to deep learning using the Oculus Quest. The application applied escape room elements as an attempt to let students learn the curriculum in an engaging way by doing 3D-puzzles, calculations, and quizzes based on the course-material. The topics were split into separate rooms to let students progress through the curriculum intuitively. 15 people tested the application and responded to a questionnaire. 26 people evaluated the application’s concepts after watching a video. Based on the evaluation, we believe that using such a VR application in AI education can be a good supplementary tool to introduce students to new topics in an engaging way. The main advantage of using VR in this context is to use interactive 3D-visualizations and hands-on activities that are challenging to experience by other means. The questionnaire’s respondents were very positive to the concept, and it could potentially be beneficial in other types of STEM-education as well.

We propose a four-voice reflection on forms of collective intelligence based on the work carried out within the IDEKI network and various research projects. This work links research to the dimensions of real professional activity by crossing the orientations in didactics and the fields of professionalization, construction of professionalism, accompaniment and professional development. We will focus on two different professional communities and the analysis of their practices and the impact on the professional development of the actors. First, school nurses who work with digital professional tools and the question of disembodied labor, secondly, librarian-teachers who develop digital writing practices in blogs and the question of the intersubjective relationship.

The paper introduces the possibilities of online musical education based on signature pedagogy as a main trend of research work. Facing COVID19 Emergency in Higher Education stated the challenge that required to design new methods in teaching and learning specially in musical education include the process of training performance skills. The methodological basis of the research was the signature pedagogy as a reflection of the way of thinking as a professional for establishing the most progressive methods of learning for future music teachers. The data were collected from the online resource in Kazan Federal University such as students’ essays, musical instrumental performance for quantitative data and feedback of students for qualitative data. Based on the results of research work were concluded that the implementation of signature pedagogy approach in musical education by the means of methods of critique and activation of creative potential through the online format allows to improve the piano class educational process and in particularly the development of students’ performance skills.

This paper aims to investigate how three specific didactic strategies, arts-based learning, flipped learning and role-playing, adopted within the scope of blended and online teaching support the involvement and the interactions between student and student and between students and teacher, as well as the elaboration of new forms of knowledge, promoting active learning. Sectoral studies indeed show how the inter-relation between didactic strategies, disciplinary contents and technological applications, have an impact on the transformative nature of learning and teaching processes. The use and the sharing of different stimulus materials, along with the work developed in collaboration using digital environments and instruments, have turned out to be particularly significant. In this regard, the students’ observations and comments show how the adoption of the three strategies, also developed within digital environments have provided opportunities to improve the cognitive processes with positive implications for motivation, participation, the re-elaboration of knowledge. This paper presents and discusses a multiple case study based on three different interventions made within the scope of university teaching (University of Bologna, academic year 2019–2020).

This article intends to investigate the theme of mental representations, perceptions and visions of teachers with respect to the use of digital technologies in the classroom. The UTAUT questionnaire was administered to a sample of 350 teachers during a training course in ICT in the period between September 2019 and January 2020. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted through the use of the t-test, correlation and ANOVA. The results that emerged describe a strong relationship between resistance to the use of technology and years of service or gender of respondents. The purpose of this article is to provide an innovative look at the research into the use of digital technologies in the school context.

Cognitive styles express the preferential way of engaging personal resources in learning processes and represent one of the most important predictors of success in academic paths. The mental representations of university students related distance and presence learning are in some way related to these styles, which orient personal dispositions towards one or another mode of teaching organization. The present research work explores these representations and identifies the variables that students take as a reference point to establish the personal meaning attributed to the experiences of learning in presence and at at distance.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, Acsenda School of Management (ASM) in Vancouver, Canada was engaged in change management to integrate technology enhanced learning throughout its curriculum. But when the pandemic struck ASM, like many higher educational institutions (HEIs) worldwide, had to move all its programs and operations online, and vacate the campus in a short time, which called for crisis management. Based on surveys of students, faculty and staff carried out during and after the first term online, ASM responded successfully. ASM is now charting its future for the rest of 2020 and 2021, using the approach of change leadership. It is aimed at creating a resilient institution that will be able to thrive in the uncertain times that will follow COVID-19. Change leadership may also involve occasional recourse to crisis management, since new waves of infection could occur at any time and require operations to go back online at short notice.

During the lockdown children, teenagers and young adult university students discovered a new type of distance learning through online platforms and conferencing tools. Extra-school sports activities were also suddenly stopped with a sharp interruption of all the social and pedagogical processes involved. Aim of the present work was to evaluate if the educational relationship between pupils and teachers continued during the lockdown; secondly, to monitor the levels of physical activity and the level of enjoyment and motivation in children and adolescents in the emergency context. 140 among children and adolescents filled in three questionnaires: one to investigate their sports and physical activity habits, the second was the Physical Activity Questionnaire to monitor the physical activity status and the third one was the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) . About 90% of pupils attended online school classes and about the same percentage received indications from Tennis School about home-exercises and other forms of distance learning. More than 40% of the sample did not follow physical education classes and 45% declared to be inactive during free time. PACES questionnaire revealed that pupils mostly enjoyed doing physical activity staying at home and did not consider it as a frustrating or annoying practice. Also, for higher education, it would be advisable to potentiate the traditional didactics with some of the best digital practices experienced during the lockdown.

2020 is the year of change and adaptability. The COVID19 pandemic immensely influences our everyday routines. Education is no exception as schools have to transform their classroom teaching to distance online tutoring. It is not easy on either side as educators and students encountered gaps in digital capabilities. Moreover they suddenly happen to be an online medium where different social behavior pattern immerged. We were very much interested how young adults endure and overcome this situation. In the present study the first result of our ongoing research that aimed to explore the digital competence and social presence among the students of the University of Pannonia are presented. The main objective was to see how students perceive their social situation online with their digital abilities, knowledge and level of competences. The results indicated that although on average perceived online social presence is not affected by individuals’ digital competences, significant relationships were found between some factors.

The work presents the multimodal study on the didactic solutions adopted for virtual internship of the Degree Course ‘Educational Sciences’ at the Giustino Fortunato University in response to the COVID19 emergency. It focuses on how the internship - assumed as an ‘active mediation device’ – has been reshaped in virtual form – i.e., it has been ‘mediatized’ - and set objectives of investigation as: the effect of specific LMS sources, the interactive web seminars taken within the e-tivities structures, on educational skill, such as the professional thinking that is explicit in the design of interventions; the use of iconic means in the simulations of cases and problems. The synthesis of two different types of analysis and documents - verbal interaction-exchanges on webinar transcriptions and iconic mediators used to illustrate the simulated case – shows that: a. if virtual internship provides targeted e-tivities on specific skills, it would be useful for building of professional thinking and skills; b. specifically, web seminars - interactive between mentor and mentee and supported by explanatory means, such as images - can have an effect in the simulation of problematic cases and, in this way, exercise the design skill of intervention.

Online teaching, open online courses, and higher education form a close union of elements that orbit around the same objective: enhancing students’ tertiary education quality. This entanglement has been emphasized by the new educational needs that arose during the recent Covid-19 crisis since many schools and universities worldwide shut down. Teaching paradigms usually undergo step-by-step changes, but sometimes, after a global event, the development is major and relevant. In this framework, the start@unito experience at the University of Turin appears as a useful model to shift didactics into an online setting. Start@unito is a Digital Learning Environment that promotes 50 Open Online Courses related to the main first-year disciplines. This paper analyzes the start@unito model from the teachers’ perspective to understand how much teaching was facilitated through this experience. Data will be deeply investigated using quantitative and qualitative measures. Results also contain teachers’ comments and remarks on their approach to students through start@unito.

In early March 2020, Morocco, like most countries, decided to impose restrictive measures to limit the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Among these measures, all schools and universities, including Cadi Ayyad University (UCA), have been closed so far, forcing students to take distance learning courses.

Previously, students and professors were reluctant to use online platforms, but the new closure situation has forced everyone to experiment with these strategies.

14 UCA higher education institutions have joined forces to offer students e-learning as an alternative to overcome university closures and ensure that learning never stops. 15852 educational resources have been produced to date, covering all UCA programs, with about 70% of the resources produced since the beginning of the pandemic. For this first stage, the university has recovered the bulk of the educational needs.

The second phase of the non-disruptive learning process, consists of strengthening interactive online learning with learners to motivate them to prepare for their exams, which have been postponed to September 2020.

The last stage of the distance learning process is devoted to the redesign of post-COVID-19 education, taking into account the challenges and experiences gained in the first and second stages.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the measures taken to ensure non-disruptive learning in the context of COVID-19. This study will help higher education institutions and the Ministry of Higher Education to compare the different experiences in the country, as well as in other faculties around the world.

The Covid-19 pandemic is overwhelming the way to think and practice didactic in higher education. Academic institutions are facing the challenge of providing courses in different ways from those used before the lockdown period. In this scenario of uncertainty, blended learning seems to be a possible solution that combines the benefits of online and classroom education. Based on many studies, researchers have concluded that a mix of face-to-face and online instructional formats is the best solution for accelerating students’ learning processes. This contribution describes a case study of the implementation of a didactic blended model in the bachelor and master’s degrees at the University of Siena. Specifically, research objectives were (1) analyze the digital environment that characterized faculties’ work before the lockdown phase, (2) describe the elements of faculties’ process of didactic redesign, (3) understand their expectations, needs, attitudes, and concerns in applying technologies to teaching and learning. The analysis allows the collection of a rich amount of data that lead to the design of a blended learning model specific for the two programs in educational science.

The digitalization of the university system in Italy has proceeded “bottom-up” through the dissemination of good practices towards more and more institutionalized interventions until the spring of 2020. With the Prime Ministerial Decree (DPCM) on 9 March 2020, in fact, Italian universities were forced to suspend face to face attendance of degree courses due to the Covid-19 emergency. This made it necessary to rethink the educational space that became digital. This space requires the didactic mediation of the teacher, without which the most sophisticated offers would remain “mute”. The research moves from our specific interest in identifying the main components of the imposed digital “metamorphosis” and the forms and formats of hybridization introduced in educational mediation in times of Covid-19 crisis.

The work presents the case of a “hybrid mediation” emerging in an academic context. The research project followed a phenomenological approach and a method of practical analysis with mixed methods with four different data collection actions.

In the framework of Problem-Based Learning (PBL), hands-on activities play a crucial role for allowing students to acquire skills and competences. PBL is particularly suitable for teaching advanced courses including topics such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data. In order to carry out practical activities, students may need specific computing and storage infrastructures, that may be not physically available in the laboratories. Thus, virtualization tools and cloud computing are often adopted for building Virtual Lab for teaching purposes.

In this work, we present our recent experiences, at the University of Pisa, in delivering two advanced courses, namely Cloud Computing and Large-Scale and Multi-Structured Databases. We discuss how we built and exploited a Virtual Lab on top of the private Cloud infrastructure of the University of Pisa as a support for the teaching-learning workflow. Moreover, we present the quantitative feedback received by the students about their experience with the Virtual Lab, showing that the learning objectives that we fixed for our courses have been fully achieved.

In this paper, we introduce the rationale, goals, and structure of Presente Digitale, an ambitious Italian project for the realization of an online education system on Digital Culture. Presente Digitale is dedicated to teachers and their students. Its aim is to offer paths of reflection closely linked to the digital world, which can respond to the current needs of schools and society about Digital Culture and helps in effectively convey this knowledge. This will give young people the opportunity to integrate their prior knowledge with a ‘teacher’s points of view’, and, mostly important, to be able to take a safe and solid path when approaching the labour market. The courses are free of charge and available online, making the participation really flexible.

The present work is focused on the key skills’ analysis of the e-tutor in Ecampus online University on the bases of the reference models described in literature. The analysis is based on a validated questionnaire translated in Italian and submitted to a sample of 220 ToL of the university. The specific objective was: (a) map the tasks, roles and duties of e-tutors; (b) validate a survey tool that on a quantitative basis that can detect the e-tutor skills; (c) improve the TOL and TD skills of the eCampus university, thanks to the data collected. The results show how the role of e-tutor in this University is hybrid, it does not imply a specific disciplinary competence but presupposes a pedagogical background linked to the actual design of the student’s learning experience within the online university. The development of these skills rely largely on day by day practice, through a more or less implicit process of reflection and, implicitly, the reference to an informal community that offers guidance and support to novices.

Digital media have opened up new opportunities to review e-learning. The three ages of media describe a shift from technology for distance education, to technology-supported groups and, currently, technology for Community development. Reflecting on the profile of the e-tutor in the third phase of e-learning, our research was guided by three key-questions: what functions does the e-tutor fulfill? What tools does the e-tutor need? What actions should the e-tutor take care of, in term of communication? The research plan, carried out on 9 online courses, is based on quanti-qualitative method (a pre-course survey, a post-course survey, learning analytics, content analysis of tutor’s interactions and self-report). The results highlight the strategic role of the e-tutor in new contexts of learning.

Webinars facilitate synchronous communication and are an opportunity for social interaction and collaborative learning between students on distance learning programmes.

We surveyed 30 distance learning students and 19 tutors about their experiences of webinar delivery, in addition to analyzing unit performance pre- (2016–2018) and post- (2018–2020) webinar integration for one Level 4 distance-learning unit in sport and exercise science.

Of the students who responded, 93% reported attending webinars as part of their programme, while 51% of tutors reported delivering a webinar as part of their teaching. Comparisons of unit performance pre- and post-webinar integration revealed an increase in unit attainment and reduction in the number of first time fails. Both students and tutors rated the addition of webinars to the distance-learning programme positively, with students rating the educational and technological quality of the webinars higher than tutors.

In conclusion, utilizing webinars to facilitate social interaction and collaborative learning on distance learning programmes contributed to improved student attainment and progression.

As COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools in most countries of the world, education systems are struggling to meet the needs of schools and keep pace with international best practices during these unprecedented times. The trauma of the pandemic crisis is having far reaching effects that will worsen long-standing gender gaps in achievements and interest in sciences in favor of males, if not tackled. Limited gains in gender equality made over decades are in danger of being lost due to COVID-19 pandemic, if education systems keep on in dormant moods as they are in many countries due to lockdown. There is an urgent need of breaking off Higher Education dormancy through Distance Learning in programs/courses implementation across the world. In this study, we explored the differential effects of Distance learning (DL) and Presential classroom instructions on achievement and interest of Science Education undergraduate students offering Basic Biology course. Quasi-experiment, pre-test post-test non-equivalent control group research design was used.150 undergraduate degree students offering SED 111 in 2019/2020 session constituted the sample. Participants were volunteers from Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics special areas. These were assigned to groups 1 and 2. Group 1 (24 males and 51 females = 75) were exposed to Distance Learning while group 2 (22 males and 53females) were exposed to Presential classroom instructions with a keen safety consciousness against Covid-19 spread. Findings showed that DL exerted a profound effect on the two dependent variables studied more than the Presential classroom instructions. Gender had no significant influence on students’ achievement and interest within DL group. Since Distance Learning has shown to be superior and indispensable for teaching and learning in a changing world, higher education stakeholders need to embrace, plan, learn, and use DL now and as post pandemic measure for curriculum implementation.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), supported by the transnational interconnection of Web 4.0 constitute the main development driver to provide education of fair and inclusive quality, aimed at promoting the realization of systemic change for the Qualitative Well-being of humanity.