Book Review: Taking Literature and Language Learning Online: New Perspectives on Teaching, Research, and Technology

The creation of beautiful literature and art is one of humanity's most essential endeavours. The importance of literature as a component of the language-teaching curriculum has fluctuated over the last century with the popularity of various language-teaching pedagogies. Notwithstanding, it has recently seen a resurrection of appreciation for its effective utility in language acquisition. Covid-19 lockdown combined with the further progress of computer-assisted language learning has led to a gradual shift in the provision of literature-based language education to an online setting. Under this trend, Sandra Stadler-Heer and Amos Paran's edited chapter book Taking Literature and Language Learning Online: New Perspectives on Teaching, Research and Technology concentrates on a particular component of this transfer process, namely the interaction between literature and language learning. This book review provides an overview of this volume.

Integrating the United Nations' sustainable development goals into virtual exchange

This chapter focuses on how to integrate synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC)-based virtual exchanges into coursework in teacher preparation programs in higher education. During their 6-week virtual exchange, participants met with partner(s) to discuss their ideas about the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition to recording their SCMC sessions, participants also completed online worksheets to reflect on their SDG discussion. By focusing on creating activities that coincide with the United Nations' SDGs in a virtual exchange, results showed that participants raised their awareness about the SDGs and created a critically sensitive critical lens, which impacted their learning. In addition to developing content knowledge, these programs were able to internationalize the higher education curriculum through virtual exchange. Students were able to discover things about themselves, their partners, their coursework, and the SDGs with "new eyes." With the recent rush to digital transformation caused by COVID-19, synchronous virtual exchange programs appear to be even more valuable as collaborative learning models. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

Engaging Students in Scientific Practices in a Remote Setting

The goal of science education has shifted from teaching scientific concepts to facilitating students' active role in making sense of phenomena through engaging in scientific practices (SPs). While engaging in scientific practices, students use and develop core ideas. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a shift towards online education, stressing the need to explore how SPs are used in a remote setting. This study aimed to investigate upper secondary students' use of SPs during collaborative work in a remote setting. The study was conducted in two stages. In Stage 1, the researcher designed collaborative assignments according to the SP approach. In Stage 2, students (N = 16) worked on the designed assignments in small groups. Students' actions on the computer were recorded with screen-recording software and investigated from three perspectives: use of digital resources, use of SPs, and collaboration. Interviews were conducted to understand students' perceptions and engagement and were analysed by content analysis means. The results indicated that the collaboration actions were intertwined with SPs use and use of digital resources. The challenges faced by students varied by SPs, with developing models and constructing scientific explanations causing the most challenges. We discuss possible strategies to engage students in SPs in online settings. © 2023 by the authors.

Learning by Designing, Imagination and Programming

The FitPed Project focuses on students' efforts to acquire programming skills in order to become up-to-date professionals and become better life-long learners as well. The current chapter sketches the larger spectrum of learning/teaching paradigms in order to enable more flexible and effective didactic planning in diverse academic curricula. ‘Active Learning' has been coined as one of the best striving to let students regain ‘ownership' of their studying and cognitive development. Simulations, programming, gaming and storytelling are promising candidates for empowering the learning and increasing intrinsic motivation. The chapter will synthesize the various aspects of active learning like: Collaborative, Constructive, Authentic, Situational and Intentional Learning, in order to enable teachers to integrate these instructional ingredients for blended learning even after the Covid-19 era. Learning paradigms have shifted from cognitive acquisition into constructivist approaches, where the learner is encouraged to build more complex concepts from elementary primitives. In this evolution, programming experiences have an important generic role: Students from all major directions need to integrate their thinking in topics like: Algorithmic Thinking, Data Mining, Meta Data, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Deep Fake, Analytics for Smart Environments, Privacy Issues, etc. For this goal, a basic programming education and experience is useful and necessary. This chapter will highlight how university curricula need to evolve and new teacher roles will develop as well. It will illustrate the transition from the current FitPed Project to its successor. Important additional notion is that the integration of Computer Science and Programming Courses need innovative didactic scenarios as well;Problem-based Learning and Challenge-based Learning are two of the most prominent candidates. After having read this chapter, you will be motivated and equipped to pro-actively design new ICT-oriented courses with your colleagues. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

The Good, the Bad, and the Pandemic: An Intra-Group Approach to Exploring Students' Experiences with Collaborative Learning During COVID-19

Collaborative learning is increasingly common in higher education, with several studies pointing to its effectiveness. However, it also poses some social and cognitive challenges for students, resulting in students' mixed attitudes toward collaborative learning. COVID-19 has added to these challenges by, for example, introducing barriers to face-to-face communication. Existing studies exploring the impact of COVID-19 on students' experiences with collaborative learning focus on individual students, missing potential intra-group trends that could be useful to instructors. Using both Likert-style and open-ended questions, this study explored 38 college students' experiences engaging in collaborative learning during COVID-19 both individually and at the intra-group level. Overall, students' experiences were positive both academically and socially, though some experienced challenges such as freeloading and online connection issues. For most groups, there were one or two students who had negative experiences, but these issues seemed to be individual and not indicative of a group-level problem. The study introduces an intra-group approach to collaborative learning research. Its findings suggest that instructors should apply collaborative learning pedagogies to enhance students' learning and social connectedness. Instructors could further improve students' experiences by identifying and solving common issues (e.g., freeloading, technical difficulties) by surveying students or encouraging them to share these difficulties with the instructor. © 2023 University of Calgary. All rights reserved.

Art-of-Living Intervention Imparted Through a Blended Learning Approach to Nurture Positivity Among Pakistan's University Students During COVID-19: A Growth Curve Analysis.

Art-of-living allows individuals to live a contemplative, mindful, and active life to attain well-being. This study demonstrates the development and implementation of an art-of-living training intervention to nurture positivity among Pakistan's university students during COVID-19. To ensure the efficacy of teaching and learning during the second wave of the pandemic, the intervention was imparted through a blended learning approach comprising two modes: (1) online learning and (2) offline personal and collaborative learning. This approach was based on the emotionalized learning experiences (ELE) format to make learning more engaging, permanent, and gratifying. The study comprised 243 students randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 122) and a wait-list control group (n = 121). Growth curve analysis indicated that positivity together with the components of art-of-living-self-efficacy, savoring, social contacts, physical care, and meaning-and overall art-of-living increased at a greater rate in the experimental group than in the control group from pretest to posttest and from posttest to follow-up measurement. The analysis provided an all-encompassing view of how positivity developed in the two groups over time. There were significant variations in participants' initial status (intercepts) and growth trajectories (slopes). The influence of participants' initial positivity scores suggested that students with high initial positivity scores had a slower increase in linear growth, whereas those with low initial positivity scores had a faster increase in linear growth over time. The success of the intervention may be attributed to the dimensions of ELE-embodied in the two modes-and fidelity to intervention for effectively implementing the blended learning approach. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10902-023-00664-0.

Improving Multidisciplinary Team Working to Support Integrated Care for People with Frailty Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Multidisciplinary team (MDT) working is essential to optimise and integrate services for people who are frail. MDTs require collaboration. Many health and social care professionals have not received formal training in collaborative working. This study investigated MDT training designed to help participants deliver integrated care for frail individuals during the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers utilised a semi-structured analytical framework to support observations of the training sessions and analyse the results of two surveys designed to assess the training process and its impact on participants knowledge and skills. 115 participants from 5 Primary Care Networks in London attended the training. Trainers utilised a video of a patient pathway, encouraged discussion of it, and demonstrated the use of evidence-based tools for patient needs assessment and care planning. Participants were encouraged to critique the patient pathway, reflect on their own experiences of planning and providing patient care. 38% of participants completed a pre-training survey, 47% a post-training survey. Significant improvement in knowledge and skills were reported including understanding roles in contributing to MDT working, confidence to speak in MDT meetings, using a range of evidence-based clinical tools for comprehensive assessment and care planning. Greater levels of autonomy, resilience, and support for MDT working were reported. Training proved effective; it could be scaled up and adopted to other settings.

The effects of online peer-facilitated learning and distributed pair programming on students' learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced universities and schools around the world to adopt online learning. Teachers may wonder if their students can attain satisfactory learning performance in an online learning environment without teachers' on-the-spot attention. In order to develop students' skills in programming, promote their enjoyment of learning and intention to learn to program, the researchers integrated two innovative teaching approaches, using online peer-facilitated learning and distributed pair programming, and investigated the effects of these on students' online learning performance. This study conducted an experiment that included 128 undergraduates from four class sections of Department of Finance. Thus, the experimental design in this research was a 2 (Peer-facilitated learning vs. non-peer-facilitated learning) × 2 (Distributed pair programming vs. non-distributed pair programming) factorial pretest/post-test design. The participants in this research mainly consisted of four classes of students from a non-computer or information department who took a compulsory course on programming design.' Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected in this study. According to the results, the peer-facilitated learning group exhibited significantly better development of programming skills, enjoyment of learning, and intention to learn, than the non-peer-facilitated learning group. However, expected effects of enhancing the learning of the students in this study who received the distributed pair programming were not found. The design of online pedagogy can be a reference for online educators. The implications of applying online peer-facilitated learning and distributed pair programming to support students' learning and the design of online programming courses are discussed.

Collaborative Behavior or Collusion? Investigating Unpermitted Collaboration on Homework Among College Students

Although postsecondary students' rate of academic dishonesty has been consistent over the last 50 years, the most significant increase in cheating has been in unpermitted collaboration. Given the changing learning environments necessitated by COVID-19, this study investigates how 12 college students at a highly selective Research 1 institution view collaboration, specifically unpermitted collaboration on homework, and how their attitudes are shaped by faculty guidance or lack thereof. We conclude by discussing how both student and faculty perceptions of collaboration may be affected by the impact of COVID-19 and how academic integrity may be influenced by this impact.

Integration of Adaptive Collaborative Learning Process in a Hybrid Learning Environment

Technology integration has been crucial in the practice of the learning process. The use of technology aims to find effective solutions to traditional learning problems. Despite the enormous efforts adopted, using e-learning systems was optional in many education systems. However, the COVID-19 health crisis has shown the importance of the transition to e-learning to ensure pedagogical continuity. According to several studies that have measured the impact of COVID-19 on education systems and the adopted solutions, blended learning represents an effective solution for combining the advantages of face-to-face and distance learning. But the implementation strategies regarding this mode of learning are still limited. For this purpose, we propose a hybrid learning model based on collaborative work through an intelligent assignment of learner roles. This approach aims to support adaptive learning via a hybrid learning environment. The proposed solution is based mainly on collaborative work as an active learning method, using the Naïve Bayes algorithm and Belbin theory. The usefulness of collaborative work is to keep the learning rhythm between face-to-face and distance learning and to encourage learners' engagement and motivation through this mode of learning. According to Belbin's theory, the results of this work propose an adequate role for each learner. This intelligent assignment leads the learner to live the learning situation and not undergo it. © IJASEIT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Forms of participation and learning of mathematics in virtual workgroups in engineering students

The objective of the research was to determine the relationship between the type of participation, collaborative organizational structure of the groups and the learning of mathematics, in a group task carried out in virtual form by the context of health emergency by COVID19. During four weeks, eight working groups composed of three environmental engineering students worked four activities on the analysis of the variation of functions. The working meetings were developed by ZOOM and WhatsApp. It was found that reasoning and argumentation as well as problem solving is favored when students express new ideas or explanations about any doubt or when they address the content of the task, especially in groups with an integrative organizational structure. © 2023 IEEE.

Empowering Health Care Education Through Learning Analytics: In-depth Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Digital education has expanded since the COVID-19 pandemic began. A substantial amount of recent data on how students learn has become available for learning analytics (LA). LA denotes the "measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs." OBJECTIVE: This scoping review aimed to examine the use of LA in health care professions education and propose a framework for the LA life cycle. METHODS: We performed a comprehensive literature search of 10 databases: MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, ERIC, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, CINAHL, ICTP, Scopus, and IEEE Explore. In total, 6 reviewers worked in pairs and performed title, abstract, and full-text screening. We resolved disagreements on study selection by consensus and discussion with other reviewers. We included papers if they met the following criteria: papers on health care professions education, papers on digital education, and papers that collected LA data from any type of digital education platform. RESULTS: We retrieved 1238 papers, of which 65 met the inclusion criteria. From those papers, we extracted some typical characteristics of the LA process and proposed a framework for the LA life cycle, including digital education content creation, data collection, data analytics, and the purposes of LA. Assignment materials were the most popular type of digital education content (47/65, 72%), whereas the most commonly collected data types were the number of connections to the learning materials (53/65, 82%). Descriptive statistics was mostly used in data analytics in 89% (58/65) of studies. Finally, among the purposes for LA, understanding learners' interactions with the digital education platform was cited most often in 86% (56/65) of papers and understanding the relationship between interactions and student performance was cited in 63% (41/65) of papers. Far less common were the purposes of optimizing learning: the provision of at-risk intervention, feedback, and adaptive learning was found in 11, 5, and 3 papers, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We identified gaps for each of the 4 components of the LA life cycle, with the lack of an iterative approach while designing courses for health care professions being the most prevalent. We identified only 1 instance in which the authors used knowledge from a previous course to improve the next course. Only 2 studies reported that LA was used to detect at-risk students during the course's run, compared with the overwhelming majority of other studies in which data analysis was performed only after the course was completed.

Promote collaborations in online problem-based learning in a user experience design course: Educational design research.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing growing need for learning experience or instructional designers. As a result, online courses on user experience (UX) design for learning are in demand to prepare those much-needed professionals. This paper reports the first circle of educational design research (EDR) on such a completely online problem-based course using group contracts and peer-evaluations to promote collaborations. Multiple datasets were collected from a range of data sources from a graduate-level course and were analyzed by two researchers. The study yielded several meaningful results: (1) group contracts helped students work smoothly and keep goals focused on collaborative learning in PBL; (2) the instructor could facilitate the group formation process; (3) peer evaluations helped group collaboration and monitoring; and (4) collaborative technologies are critical for collaboration. The findings also revealed important design principles for collaborative learning in PBL that can be used in similar courses. In addition, this study provides a successful example of how to teach UX design in an online PBL environment, and sheds light on how to further improve similar practices while contributing to the limited body of research on UX design for learning. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-022-11495-6.

Out-of-the-Box Learning: Digital Escape Rooms as a Metaphor for Breaking Down Barriers in STEM Education

The traditional lecture-based model of teaching and learning has led to the exploration of innovative approaches including digital escape rooms. Digital escape rooms offer an immersive and engaging experience that promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork, making them a unique opportunity to address the challenges of STEM education, which is often perceived as difficult, boring, and intimidating. In this study, the goal is to explore the application of digital escape rooms as an innovative practice in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education in Europe. More specifically, the study aims to evaluate the influence of digital escape rooms on student engagement and learning outcomes in mathematics education as well as to provide valuable insights into the efficacy of this approach as a means of teaching mathematics and fostering active and experiential learning in STEAM education. In order to investigate the potential of digital escape rooms as a metaphor for breaking down barriers and escaping from the ”box” in STEM education, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for understanding the pedagogical value of digital escape rooms in STEM education. It outlines the design process, including learning paths and scenarios, storyline, puzzles, challenges, and feedback mechanisms, and presents a concept of escape room design patterns. An example case study of a digital escape room designed to teach mathematics to university students is also presented, providing insights into the effectiveness of this approach. By using digital escape rooms as a metaphor for breaking down barriers in STEM education, a more inclusive, engaging, and impactful learning environment can be created to prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

Insights Gained from an Inquiry-Driven Biochemistry Laboratory during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic required us to implement innovative ideas, especially in upper-level chemistry laboratory courses that train students to implement critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Due to the pandemic-enforced close down of the campus in the spring of 2020, many students lacked laboratory skills. At the same time our university, like many others, adopted the HyFlex model to accommodate multiple waves of COVID-19 and to provide flexibility for the students to learn materials from home. In accordance with these changes, the senior-level biochemistry laboratory course was restructured into a hybrid course focusing on the study of a SARS coronavirus protein. To establish inquiry-driven learning, this hybrid course included two modules: Module I included computer-based studies that allowed students to propose a hypothesis, and Module II included in-person laboratory sessions that allowed students to verify the hypothesis. The computer-based module was offered in synchronous hybrid (virtual and in-person) mode, while the hands-on activities were run in a synchronous in-person mode. This computer-based module could be adapted in any biochemistry lecture or laboratory course as a separate module or as a semester-long project to study the structure-function relationship of a protein of interest. In this communication, I present the activities and the key lessons learned from the inquiry-driven biochemistry laboratory course. Based on this experience, several adjustments are made for future courses to offer flexibility to students. © 2023 The Author. Published by American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Benefits perceived by vietnamese efl learners and their engagement in online collaborative learning during the covid-19 pandemic

The benefits of collaborative learning have been proven by previous research across disciplines, contexts, and levels of education. The present study aims to validate these benefits perceived by 76 English-As-A-foreign-language (EFL) learners who experienced online-collaborative learning via group work activities in English translation classes at a local university, South Vietnam during the Covid-19 pandemic. Surveying these learners at the end of the course via a questionnaire and analyzing their reciprocal assignment discussion recordings were carried out. The survey results uncovered that the learners highly appreciated online collaborative learning because they perceived that it was beneficial to their future life, career, cognition, and social communication strategies. Their positive view on collaborative learning benefits was deemed to engage them in online group work activities while interacting with partners to complete shared assignments. Furthermore, the empirical discussion recordings analysis documented their sound engagement via a range of group work interactive acts. It is believed that these online purposeful interactions make learning occur, knowledge acquired, and social skills reinforced by the learners. As a result, the present study not only validates the robust benefits reported in previous studies, but also it could be used as a guidance to implement collaborative learning in teaching other subjects other than English translation. © 2023 Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. All rights reserved.

Does active participation via integrated questions in large lectures matter?

This paper investigates whether the intensity of participation in large lecture quizzes in a tertiary education context, facilitated and monitored by an online platform, is associated with better examination performance. The platform mirrors lecture slides onto student devices and uses integrated "clicker" style questions within the lecture to quiz students on concepts learned. Using regression, we find that the intensity of quiz participation is positively related to students' performance. Student study perceptions, based on study and career plans, moderate the results. These findings are relevant to educators, especially in a post-COVID-19 learning environment, where the online quiz function could be used to foster participation.

Scaling-Up Social Learning in Small Groups with Robot Supported Collaborative Learning (RSCL): Effects of Learners' Prior Experience in the Case Study of Planning Poker with the Robot NAO

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to online learning in higher education, making the need to rethink pedagogical approaches to on-campus education stronger than ever before. While online learning offers a wide range of benefits for both teachers and students, social, face-to-face interaction provides a strong rationale for in-person education. This paper proposes a novel approach to enhancing in-person social learning experiences through robot-supported collaborative learning facilitated by a social robot NAO in the case study "Planning poker with NAO”, which is a collaborative game-based activity facilitated by the robot. The case study was designed to provide a scalable social learning experience in small groups of students. The evaluation results from a study with 46 university students who played Planning poker with NAO explore different quality aspects of the learning experience. The results indicate that students valued both the social learning experience and the robotic facilitator. The analysis revealed some significant differences among students with and without prior experience in interacting with NAO, suggesting directions for future research related to novelty and familiarisation effects as well as to scaling up of social learning in small groups by applying social robots. © 2023 by the author.

"Hello, my name is differ!" the use of chatbots for providing collaborative study support to university students

In this chapter the use of chatbots is advocated as a technological channel to facilitate learning communities to minimize feelings of isolation and falling academic engagement, owing to COVID-19 mitigation strategies. These facets are reported to be common challenges faced by students transitioning from school to university (Hone and El Said, 2016). Chatbots facilitate communication between students via a chat interface powered by artificial intelligence (Desaulniers, 2016), and make use of pattern matching to provide personalised experiences (Gill, 2019). Chatbots offer an innovative approach toward improving establishing learning communities by "tapping-in" to the popularity of mobile phone use (Chaudhuri, 2008). Although there has been a rise in the adoption of chatbots across the Higher Education landscape (Studente, Ellis and Garivaldis, 2020), research in the area is still relatively new (Sandoval, 2018). This chapter reports upon a study conducted at a London University, with a largely international student base. During the physical closure of the university owing to lockdown measures, a chatbot called Differ was used to not only provide a channel of social support for students, but to also facilitate collaborative study support across a number of modules during online delivery of classes. © 2022 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Collaborative Learning: A Design Challenge for Teachers

This study, focused on collaborative learning approaches, aims to contribute to our understanding of whether and how teachers propose these kinds of activities in their daily practice. Particularly, this study aims to explore teachers' behaviour when designing such activities for their learners with respect to different learning settings (i.e., face-to-face and/or blended settings vs. fully online settings). With reference to fully online settings, the Emergency Remote Teaching that took place during the COVID-19 outbreak is used as a reference case. The results of a self-reported survey of Italian teachers (N = 268) are presented. Our conclusions indicate that Italian teachers do propose collaborative learning activities to some extent in face-to-face and/or blended settings as well as in fully online settings, with statistically significant differences both in reference to the approaches adopted and to the (technological) tools used. Nonetheless, the data also indicate that teachers' design decisions are not always in line with recommendations widely proposed by the collaborative learning research community.