Effect of interactive immediacy on online learning satisfaction of international students in Chinese universities: The chain mediating role of learning interest and academic engagement.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of interactive immediacy on online learning satisfaction, and the mediating effect of learning interest and academic engagement on the relationship between interactive immediacy and online learning satisfaction. 2221 international students in Chinese universities participated in the questionnaire survey. The coefficient omega (ω) and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to test the reliability and validity. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze interactive immediacy, learning interest, and academic engagement on online learning satisfaction of international students in Chinese universities, as well as the mediating effect of learning interest and academic engagement. The results showed that interactive immediacy did not directly influence the online learning satisfaction of international students in Chinese universities. Learning interest and academic engagement played a complete mediating role between interactive immediacy and online learning satisfaction. Meanwhile, interactive immediacy not only affected online learning satisfaction of international students in Chinese universities through learning interest and academic engagement respectively, but also indirectly affected online learning satisfaction through the chain mediating effect of learning interest and academic engagement. The results of Bootstrap showed that the mediating effects in the model were significant. The findings of this study explored the underlying mechanism of international students' online learning satisfaction in Chinese universities, which provided an empirical basis for universities and teachers to improve the effect of online teaching, and integrate online teaching and traditional classroom teaching.

"They helped me through the semester": electronic instructor messages can foster the instructor-student relationship.

Building rapport between instructors and students is a challenge, especially in large classes and in online environments. Previous work has shown that non-content Instructor Talk can foster positive student-teacher relationships, but less is known about non-content talk in electronic instructor messages. Here, we used the established Instructor Talk framework to craft positively phrased electronic messages that were sent through the course's learning management system to students enrolled in an introductory biology course at a large public institution. We examined both close- and open-ended survey responses (n = 226) to assess students' perceptions of the electronic messages, the course, and their instructor. Of the established Instructor Talk categories, the building student/instructor relationship category was most memorable to students. Encouragingly, 61% of students indicated they "liked the course more" and 88% indicated they "liked the instructor more" in response to the electronic messages. This demonstrates that implementing positively phrased Instructor Talk into electronic communication is an effective way to build rapport between instructors and students.

EFL teacher-student interaction, teacher immediacy, and Students' academic engagement in the Chinese higher learning context.

The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the role of mediators of teacher-student rapport in the relationship between the teachers' immediacy and academic engagement in EFL contexts. The participants of this correlational study were 285 students of Xinxiang which is an important central city in northern Henan province, China. They (195 females and 90 males) were selected as a convenient sampling. To collect the data, Teacher-Student Rapport Questionnaire (Wilson et al., 2010), Teachers' Immediacy Questionnaire (Gorham, 1988), and Learners' Academic Engagement (Kember & Leung, 2009) were employed. The collected data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method. The results showed that the research model is confirmed in terms of significance and fit indicators, and the variable of teachers' immediacy indirectly affects academic engagement through teacher-student rapport (p < .05). The research findings presented robust evidence supporting a robust and positive correlation between teachers' verbal immediacy and students' engagement. This implies that when educators exhibit clear and expressive communication, it contributes significantly to fostering active involvement and participation among students. Expanding on this insight, the study suggests that the impact of teachers' nonverbal immediacy should not be overlooked. Indeed, nonverbal cues from educators can hold considerable influence in shaping the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship. Furthermore, it is proposed that nonverbal immediacy plays a pivotal role in influencing academic engagement. In essence, both verbal and nonverbal aspects of immediacy contribute synergistically to creating a conducive learning environment, enhancing the teacher-student connection, and ultimately promoting students' academic engagement.

Combining the Devil's advocate approach and verifiability approach to assess veracity in opinion statements / Combinando los enfoques de abogado del diablo y verificabilidad para evaluar la veracidad de declaraciones basadas en opiniones

Aim: We examined the ability to detect lying about opinions with the Devil's Advocate Approach and Verifiability Approach. Method: Interviewees were first asked an opinion eliciting question to argue in favour of their alleged personal view. This was followed by a devil's advocate question to argue against their alleged personal view. Since reasons that support rather than oppose an opinion are more readily available in people's minds, we expected truth tellers' responses to the opinion eliciting question to include more information and to sound more plausible, immediate, direct, and clear than their responses to the devil's advocate question. In lie tellers these patterns were expected to be less pronounced. Interviewees were also asked to report sources that could be checked to verify their opinion. We expected truth tellers to report more verifiable sources than lie tellers. A total of 150 participants expressed their true or false opinions about a societal issue. Results: Supporting the hypothesis, the differences in plausibility, immediacy, directness, and clarity were more pronounced in truth tellers than in lie tellers (answers to eliciting opinion question sounded more plausible, immediate, direct, and clear than answers to the devil's advocate question). Verifiable sources yielded no effect. Conclusions: The Devil's Advocate Approach is a useful tool to detect lies about opinions. (AU)

Objetivos: El artículo analiza la capacidad para detectar el engaño en declaraciones de testigos basadas en opiniones con el enfoque del “abogado del diablo” y el de la verificabilidad. Método: A un grupo de entrevistados se le pidió que argumentaran a favor de su opinión personal. A un segundo grupo se le requirió que, haciendo de abogado del diablo, argumentaran en contra de su punto de vista personal. Dado que los argumentos favorables a la opinión personal son mentalmente más accesibles que los contrarios, esperábamos que las respuestas honestas de los testigos incluyeran más argumentos y resultaran más plausibles, inmediatas, directas y claras que las respuestas haciendo de abogado del diablo. Por su parte, en la condición de respuestas falsas esperábamos que estos patrones fueran menos pronunciados. Además, se solicitó a los entrevistados que informaran de los medios en los que podría verificarse su opinión. Esperábamos que los testigos de la condición de verdad aportaran más fuentes verificables que los de la condición de mentira. Participaron en el estudio un total de 150 sujetos que manifestaron su opinión verdadera o falsa sobre un tema de relevancia social. Resultados: Los resultados confirmaron la hipótesis planteada: los testigos honestos prestaron declaraciones más plausibles, inmediatas, directas y claras que los falsos (las respuestas de los entrevistados que argumentaron a favor de su opinión personal resultaron más plausibles, inmediatas, directas, y claras que las respuestas haciendo de abogado del diablo). Sin embargo, no se observaron efectos del factor testigo en las fuentes de verificación. Conclusiones: El enfoque de abogado del diablo es una herramienta útil para la detección de opiniones falsas. (AU)

The role of teacher empathy and immediacy in Chinese EFL students' affective learning outcomes: unveiling the associations.

Introduction: The positive influences of teacher-student interpersonal communication skills on second language (L2) students have been considerably endorsed in the literature. However, the contribution of teacher empathy and immediacy behaviors, as realizations of such skills, to students' affective learning outcomes is unaddressed in L2 research. Methods: To fill this gap, three scales were distributed among a sample of 350 Chinese EFL students to see if teachers' empathy and immediacy correlate with and predict students' affective learning outcomes. Results: The results of correlation analysis revealed strong and positive relationships among teacher empathy, teacher immediacy, and learners' affective learning outcomes. Moreover, the results of multiple regression indicated that Chinese EFL teachers' empathy and immediacy could predict about 65 and 60% of changes in the learners' affective learning outcomes, respectively. Discussion: Implications of the study for EFL teachers' interpersonal communication skills development and emotional literacy are discussed. Future research trends are also presented at the end of the article.

The predicting role of EFL teachers' immediacy behaviors in students' willingness to communicate and academic engagement.

BACKGROUND: Teacher-student interactions and proximity have been shown influential in second/foreign (L2) education. However, the role of L2 teachers' immediacy behaviors on students' willingness to communicate (WTC) and academic engagement remains relatively unexamined in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL). PURPOSE: This study intended to examine the association among EFL teachers' immediacy behaviors and students' WTC and engagement. METHODS: In this quantitative study, three online questionnaires were completed by 400 Chinese EFL students in different universities out of which 364 were valid. RESULTS: The results of statistical analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that teachers' immediacy behaviors (verbal, nonverbal) had a highly significant influence on EFL students' WTC (ß=0.89, p = .000) and academic engagement (ß=0.71, p = .000). It was also revealed that teachers' immediacy could predict 89% and 71% of variances in students' WTC academic engagement, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results, I could be concluded that EFL teachers' interpersonal communication abilities (e.g., immediacy) foster the establishment and growth of other positive outcomes among learners. IMPLICATIONS: The study presents some conclusions and practical implications for EFL teachers, materials developers, and trainers to integrate the nonverbal cues of L2 communication into their practices. Such practices have the potential to enhance students' willingness to communicate (WTC) and improve academic engagement.

Testing delayed, gradual, and temporary treatment effects in randomized single-case experiments: A general response function framework.

Randomization tests represent a class of significance tests to assess the statistical significance of treatment effects in randomized single-case experiments. Most applications of single-case randomization tests concern simple treatment effects: immediate, abrupt, and permanent changes in the level of the outcome variable. However, researchers are confronted with delayed, gradual, and temporary treatment effects; in general, with "response functions" that are markedly different from single-step functions. We here introduce a general framework that allows specifying a test statistic for a randomization test based on predicted response functions that is sensitive to a wide variety of data patterns beyond immediate and sustained changes in level: different latencies (degrees of delay) of effect, abrupt versus gradual effects, and different durations of the effect (permanent or temporary). There may be reasonable expectations regarding the kind of effect (abrupt or gradual), entailing a different focal data feature (e.g., level or slope). However, the exact amount of latency and the exact duration of a temporary effect may not be known a priori, justifying an exploratory approach studying the effect of specifying different latencies or delayed effects and different durations for temporary effects. We provide illustrations of the proposal with real data, and we present a user-friendly freely available web application implementing it.

The illusion of immediacy: on the need for human synchronization in data-intensive medicine.

Medical practice is increasingly shaped by big data sets and less by patient narratives. Data-intensive medicine promises to directly connect the patients with the clinic. Instead of medical examinations taking place at bedside and discrete moments, sensor-based technologies continuously monitor a certain body parameter and automatically transfer the data via a telemedical system. Based on a qualitative study of remote cardiac monitoring, I explore how the uncoupling of processes that used to happen in one place, changes the way diagnosis is made. Using ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews with patients and tele-nurses of two university hospitals in Switzerland, I describe remote cardiac monitoring as a data network. The perception of being constantly connected to the hospital resulted in a reassuring effect among patients and healthcare professionals. Moreover, the notion of an automatically synchronized data network led patients to expect immediate feedback from the hospital as soon as an irregularity was detected. However, it obscured the fact that although the inserted sensor monitors the heart around the clock, the data is transmitted only once a day, and the tele-nurses only work during office hours, from Monday to Friday. I call this misperception "illusion of immediacy". It takes time to accurately correlate and interpret a recorded episode with other types of data, such as the last hospital visit, comorbidities, and/or the actual situation in which the recording was made. Accordingly, tele-nurses and cardiologists play a central and privileged role in the data network. The findings highlight the importance of synchronizing the different temporalities that coexist in the patient remote monitoring data network in order to generate meaningful knowledge that ultimately leads to a diagnosis.

Matters of Frequency, Immediacy and Regularity: Engagement in an Online Asynchronous Course.

Many models of online student engagement posit a "more is better" relationship between students' course-related actions and their engagement. However, recent research indicates that the timing of engagement is also an important consideration. In addition to the frequency (how often) of engagement, two other constructs of timing were explored in this study: immediacy (how early) and regularity (in what ordered pattern). These indicators of engagement were applied to three learning assessment types used in an online, undergraduate, competency-based, technology skills course. The study employed advanced data collection and learning analytics techniques to collect continuous behavioral data over seven semesters (n = 438). Results revealed that several indicators of engagement predicted academic success, but significance differed by assessment type. "More" is not always better, as some highly engaged students earn lower grades. Successful students tended to engage earlier with lessons regardless of assessment type.

Determinants of impact factor and Eigenfactor score in otolaryngology journals.

Objective: This study aims to identify determinants of high impact, measured by Impact Factor (IF) and Eigenfactor score, among otolaryngology journals. Methods: Bibliometric data of "otorhinolaryngology" journals were collected from the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database. For the years 2009-2020, we collected normalized Eigenfactor score, 5-year IF, immediacy index, fraction of IF from journal-self citation, proportion and magnitude of published citable articles, and total citation counts. High-IF and -Eigenfactor journals were considered those within the top-quartile of that metric each respective year. Results: High-IF and -Eigenfactor otolaryngology journals displayed higher 5-year IFs, immediacy indexes, and IF without self-citation (p < .05 for all years) including total citations counts and citable articles when ranked by Eigenfactor (p < .05 for all years). Otolaryngology IF correlated with 5-year IF and immediacy index within the same year (p < .05 for all years) and from previous years (p < .05 for all years; p < .05 for 2017-2018; p > .05 for 2009-2016). Eigenfactor correlated with 5-year IF, total citation counts, and citable articles within the same year (p < .05 for all years) and previous years (p < .05 for 2013-2018). Multilinear regression revealed that 5-year IF (p < .05 for 2009-2018) and immediacy index from the prior 2 years (p < .05 for 2017-2018; p > .05 for 2009-2016) predicted 2019 IF. Similarly, 5-year IF, total citation counts, and citable articles (p < .05 for 2013-2018) predicted 2019 Eigenfactor score. Conclusion: Sustained publication of impactful articles is the dominant driver of high IF and Eigenfactor score. Eigenfactor score reflects a unique evaluation of otolaryngology journals; ranking otolaryngology journals by their Eigenfactor scores significantly alters journal ranking compared to ranking by IF. Level of evidence: NA.

El acto de telemedicina: hacia un nuevo concepto de asistencia médico-personal / The Telemedicine act: A new concept of medical-personal assistance

Gracias a la equivalencia funcional entre acto médico y acto de telemedicina, la prestación sanitaria adistancia queda sujeta a las exigencias deontológicas, legales y profesionales previstas para toda actuación médica. Sin embargo, la calificación jurídica del acto de telemedicina como acto médico suscita el debate sobre si la prestación médica a distancia cumple con la exigencia de prestación personal y directa del acto médico. Este estudio, analiza esta cuestión y su resolución en diferentes sistemas jurídicos, como el francés, el español, el alemán y el austriaco. De este análisis comparativo, resultarán los elementos necesarios para reflexionar sobre la nueva configuración de la relación asistencial personal como presupuesto de la regulación del acto de telemedicina.(AU)

Gràcies a l'equivalència funcional entre acte mèdic i acte de telemedicina, la prestació sanitària a distància queda subjecta a les exigències deontològiques, legals i professionals previstes per a tota actuació mèdica. No obstant això, la qualificació jurídica de l'acte de telemedicina com a acte mèdic suscita el debat sobre si la prestació mèdica a distància compleix amb l'exigència de prestació personal i directa de l'acte mèdic. Aquest estudi, analitza aquesta qüestió i la seva resolució en diferents sistemes jurídics, com el francès, l'espanyol, l'alemany i l'austríac. D'aquesta anàlisi comparativa, resultaran els elements necessaris per a reflexionar sobre la nova configuració de la relació assistencial personal com a pressupost de la regulació de l'acte de telemedicina.(AU)

Thanks to the functional equivalence between medical act and telemedicine act, the healthcare service at a distance is subject to the deontological, legal and professional requirements established for any medical performance. However, the legal qualification of the act of telemedicine as a medical act raises the debate on whether the medical service at a distance meets the requirement of personal and direct benefit of the medicalact. This study analyzes this issue and its resolution in different legal systems such as French, Spanish, German and Austrian. From this comparative analysis, the necessary elements will result to reflect on the new configuration of the personal care relationship as a regulatory budget for the act of telemedicine.(AU)

The implementation of chatbot-mediated immediacy for synchronous communication in an online chemistry course.

Low student engagement and motivation in online classes are well-known issues many universities face, especially with distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The online environment makes it even harder for teachers to connect with their students through traditional verbal and nonverbal behaviours, further decreasing engagement. Yet, addressing such problems with 24/7 synchronous communication is overly demanding for faculty. This paper details an automated Question-Answering chatbot system trained in synchronous communication and instructor immediacy techniques to determine its suitability and effectiveness in attending to students undergoing an online Chemistry course. The chatbot is part of a new wave of affective focused chatbots that can benefit students' learning process by connecting with them on a relatively more humanlike level. As part of the pilot study in the development of this chatbot, qualitative interviews and self-report data capturing student-chatbot interactions, experiences and opinions have been collected from 12 students in a Singaporean university. Thematic analysis was then employed to consolidate these findings. The results support the chatbot's ability to display several communication immediacy techniques well, on top of responding to students at any time of the day. Having a private conversation with the chatbot also meant that the students could fully focus their attention and ask more questions to aid their learning. Improvements were suggested, in relation to the chatbot's word detection and accuracy, accompanied by a framework to develop communication immediacy mechanics in future chatbots. Our findings support the potential of this chatbot, once modified, to be used in a similar online setting. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-023-11602-1.

The Effect of Physician Immediacy on Patient Liking for Physician, Motivation, and Recall.

Guided by the fostering relationships function of patient-centered communication (PCC), the present study utilized a 2 (high/low nonverbal immediacy) x 2 (high/low verbal immediacy) between-subjects experimental design to determine whether physician verbal and nonverbal immediacy influenced participant liking for physician, motivation to process a health message, and recall of the health message. An actor physician delivered a 3-4 minute video-recorded message, diagnosing U.S. adult participants, serving as analogue patients, with a health issue. The results indicated main effects for physician verbal immediacy and nonverbal immediacy on participant liking for physician and motivation such that participants had greater liking for the physician and motivation to do what the physician requested when the physician demonstrated greater verbal and nonverbal immediacy. However, physician verbal and nonverbal immediacy did not influence participants' recall. Physicians should consider displaying verbal and nonverbal immediacy to create a positive impression among patients, and to motivate patients to take steps to improve their health.

Putting your best face forward: How instructor emoji use influences students' impressions of credibility, immediacy, and liking.

This project explores the impacts of emojis on students' impressions when used in a course welcome email. We adopt a 4 × 3 factorial design to determine how different emojis (i.e., , , ) impact students' impressions of credibility, immediacy, and liking. Data from students (N = 368) indicates emoji choice does impact impressions. Consistently, instructors' emoji use resulted in decreased perceived competence and trustworthiness but increased perceived caring, immediacy, and liking. Findings have implications for instructors who engage in technologically-mediated out-of-class communication and want to strengthen early student-instructor relationships. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.

Teacher Immediacy for Effective Teaching in Medical Education.

This article introduces the concept of "teacher immediacy," defined as the teacher's communication behaviors that reduce the psychological distance between teacher and students. Though well investigated and recognized in the area of instructional communication, this concept is still new to the field of medical education. The authors first describe the origin, definition, and indicators of teacher immediacy, and then present empirical research findings on teacher immediacy's positive associations with effective teaching. The authors also introduce findings of teacher immediacy research related to the online learning environment. They recommend medical educators adopt the term "teacher immediacy" and explore it in practice.

An Analysis of the 50 Most-Cited "Uveitis" Articles Published Between 2010-2020 From a Bibliographic and Altmetric Perspective.

Purpose We aimed to evaluate the 50 most-cited articles on uveitis according to their Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) and additional metrics. Methods The Web of Science (WoS) core collection database was used in this study. The article and journal metrics and characteristics were examined. In addition, the effect of article and journal metrics on the AAS was examined with multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS). Results The number of citations of the evaluated articles ranged from 670 to 90, and AASs ranged from 633 to 0. According to the MARS model, the importance scores of the predictors were as follows: article influence score (100%), immediacy index (77.74%), number of years since publication (57.79%), times cited in WoS (32.69%). We found that the trend of articles on uveitis was related to the "treatment category", namely, adalimumab. Second, the popular topic was uveitis caused by viruses. Conclusions We found that citation-based metrics and year of publication contributed to AAS. AAS appears to be inadequate in assessing the quality of articles. However, due to the electronic transformation of the publishing industry, it seems inevitable that altmetrics will become an additional supportive metric.

Defining and assessing immediacy in single-case experimental designs.

Immediacy is one of six data aspects (alongside level, trend, variability, overlap, and consistency) that has to be accounted for when visually analyzing single-case data. Given that it is one of the aspects that has received considerably less attention than other data aspects, the current text offers a review of the proposed conceptual definitions of immediacy (i.e., what it refers to) and also of the suggested operational definitions (i.e., how exactly is it assessed and/or quantified). Provided that a variety of conceptual and operational definitions is identified, we propose following a sensitivity analysis using a randomization test for assessing immediate effects in single-case experimental designs, by identifying when changes were most clear. In such a sensitivity analysis, the immediate effects are tested for multiple possible intervention points and for different possible operational definitions. Robust immediate effects can be detected if the results for the different operational definitions converge.

The Role of Teachers' Interpersonal Behaviors in Learners' Academic Achievements.

In the context of English as a foreign language classroom, affections that form between teacher and students may affect the teaching/learning process. This review aimed to investigate the related studies on the effect of teacher-learner interpersonal relationships on learners' educational performance in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) educational contexts. This review concluded that there is a significant constructive correlation between teacher-learner interpersonal relationships and learners' academic achievement. Learners are required to have some sense of belonging to improve their educational performance. Moreover, other positive emotional factors such as grit, wellbeing, self-efficacy, academic engagement, motivation, and foreign language enjoyment can mediate the association between teacher-learner interpersonal relationships and learners' academic success. The study concludes with some implications for English learners, English language teachers, and English language teacher trainers. The ideas can improve their awareness of teacher-student interpersonal relationships, including teacher stroke, rapport, and teacher immediacy and their role in improving learners' foreign language learning.

L2 Enjoyment of English as a Foreign Language Students: Does Teacher Verbal and Non-verbal Immediacy Matter?

This review explored the investigations on the role of teacher immediacy in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' foreign language enjoyment. Earlier investigations have proved that teacher immediacy, such as posture, body language, vocal variety, gestures, and smile, can significantly affect learners' positive emotions like foreign language enjoyment. It means that teachers should try both to control the feelings of their learners and manage their feelings to enhance enjoyment among learners. Moreover, studies have shown that teacher immediacy is significantly related to learner motivation which is a basis for increasing foreign language enjoyment among learners. However, specific strategies can be employed to increase learner motivation, which in return increases learner foreign language enjoyment. Furthermore, the study presented the implications and future directions of this line of research for different people, such as EFL teachers, teacher educators, and foreign language scholars. The ideas can improve their awareness of teacher-student relationships, in particular, teacher immediacy and its role in learners' foreign language enjoyment.

A Theoretical Review on the Role of English as a Foreign Language Teachers' Self-Disclosure in Shaping Classroom Climate and Immediacy.

Teachers' interpersonal communication skills and strategies have been widely considered effective pedagogical tools in academia. Despite the growing research in this area, unraveling the power of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' self-disclosure in shaping classroom climate and immediacy has been relatively left intact. To fill the gap and provide new insights into this strand of research, the present article was an effort to present a theoretical analysis of the interplay of self-disclosure, classroom climate, and immediacy. In so doing, the definitions, conceptualizations, dimensions, underlying theories, and empirical evidence in support of the interaction among these three constructs were presented. Moreover, practical implications for EFL teachers, teacher trainers, and L2 scholars were provided to raise their awareness of interpersonal communication skills and their outcomes in academia. Finally, the study provided some suggestions for further research in this line of inquiry.