The Involvement of Academic and Emotional Support for Sustainable Use of MOOCs.

MOOCs, the Massive Open Online Courses, are online educational courses that offer open access to a large number of participants globally. However, online engagement during MOOC learning remains a problem, as reflected in relatively high dropout rates. This paper involves academic and emotional support, aiming to explore whether they contribute to users' sustainable use of the MOOC platform. A total of 410 college students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) and with MOOC learning experience participated in this study. Employing the structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques, we examined the relationships among five factors in the EFL MOOC learning context: academic support (AS), emotional support (ES), perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEoU), and platform reputation (PR). The results indicate that academic support influences learners' perceptions of the usefulness and ease of use of the MOOC platform, as well as enhancing learners' feelings of being emotionally supported. Simultaneously, platform reputation plays a crucial role in influencing learners' perceptions of MOOC platforms. However, results suggest that emotional support does not have a statistically significant impact on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the platform in EFL MOOC learning contexts.

Competence, preparation, and relaxation: Contributing factors to EFL student teachers' self-efficacy and teaching performance in microteaching training.

Microteaching is called "micro" teaching because it involves teaching a short lesson to a small group of people in a simulated classroom setting, with the goal of improving specific teaching skills or behaviors. Microteaching training represents a significant approach for enhancing the teaching competencies of student teachers. However, there is a scarcity of studies that examine the factors contributing to the self-efficacy and teaching performance of student teachers, both of which are central concerns in microteaching training programs. This study addresses this gap by synthesizing five contributing factors from existing literature, collecting survey responses from 272 English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) student teachers, and employing structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the relationships between these factors. The four hypotheses that were rejected yielded unexpected results, indicating negative relationships between participants' teaching experience and EFL speaking competence with their lesson-delivery competence, as well as a negative relationship between lesson-delivery competence and self-efficacy. Interestingly, public speaking anxiety was found to have no statistically significant impact on EFL student teachers' self-efficacy. This study establishes a theoretical framework that can assist decision-makers in enhancing facilitators and overcoming barriers in microteaching training programs. This framework can also be adapted for use in other academic studies.

The seewo interactive whiteboard (IWB) for ESL teaching: How useful it is?

The perceived usefulness (PU) of a technology is critical for its final adoption; however, what makes an interactive whiteboard (IWB) perceived useful remains unclear. This study aims to investigate how pre-service teachers perceive the usefulness of Seewo interactive whiteboards for ESL (English-as-a-second-language) instruction. We recruited 80 pre-service ESL teachers, divided them into 16 groups, provided five weeks of training, and conducted focus group interviews to gather qualitative feedback. The data were analyzed using grounded theory techniques with the aid of the software Nvivo. Three research questions were addressed: how pre-service ESL teachers perceive the usefulness of Seewo IWB in terms of its functions that enhance the learning process (PU-process), how they perceive the usefulness of Seewo IWB in terms of its functions that improve learning outcomes (PU-outcome), and how they perceive the non-usefulness of Seewo IWB. The findings shed light on the determinants of the perceived usefulness (PU) concept, which is crucial for fostering a higher intention to accept technology.

The Effectiveness of Gamified Tools for Foreign Language Learning (FLL): A Systematic Review.

Gamification has emerged as a promising approach for foreign language learning (FLL), which refers to the use of game design elements to engage learners or improve academic performance. However, the features of gamification studies in FLL and their effectiveness are unclear. Additionally, how previous studies measured the effectiveness of gamified FLL tools is not well understood. In this systematic review, this author addressed these questions based on 21 empirical studies. The findings revealed that the effectiveness of gamified tools in FLL was mixed, with some bringing positive changes, others negative changes, and some showing no differences. The factors that influenced the effectiveness include methodological limitations, biases in the experiment setting, technical limitations, individual differences, failure to achieve meaningful gamification, a mixture of element selection, sub-optimal measurement, and data interpretation biases. This study identified research gaps in previous studies and offers suggestions for future research in this area.

Corrigendum to "Eye-tracking technology in identifying visualizers and verbalizers: Data on eye-movement differences and detection accuracy" [Data in Brief 26 (2019) 104447].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.104447.].

Eye-tracking technology in identifying visualizers and verbalizers: data on eye-movement differences and detection accuracy.

Data in this article revealed the eye movement differences of visualizers and verbalizers in viewing four pictures-in-text by analyzing gaze path and fixation data (fixation duration, fixation counts and the average time on each fixation). After imported the documents into Tobii eye-tracker, authors triggered participants' natural reading habits, recorded their eye movement data, and predicted participants as visualizers or verbalizers based on the Felder and Silverman Learning Style Model (FSLSM). Comparing the predictions with self-report results tested by the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire, authors got the accuracy results of using eye-tracking technology in identifying visualizers and verbalizers. The data revealed natural preferences of people with different styles, and it can be used in future studies in the field of adaptive learning systems, individual differences, neuroscience in reading habits, and individualized instruction.