Intelligent and adaptive tutoring through a social network for higher education

Author(s):  
Christos Troussas ◽  
Akrivi Krouska ◽  
Efthimios Alepis ◽  
Maria Virvou
10.28945/3863 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 167-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smadar Bar-Tal ◽  
Christa S. C. Asterhan

Aim/Purpose: The present study aims to describe existing peer-to-peer, social network-based sharing practices among adult students in teacher colleges. Background: Ubiquitous social network sites open up a wide array of possibilities for peer-to-peer information and knowledge sharing. College instructors are often unaware of such practices that happen behind the scenes. Methodology: An interpretative, qualitative research methodology was used. Thirty-seven Israeli students at a teacher college in Israel participated in either focus group discussions of (N = 29) or in-depth interviews (N = 8). Contribution: Whereas knowledge sharing has been a main focus of research in organizational and information sciences, its relevance to educational settings has thus far been underscored. Recent research shows that peer–to-peer knowledge sharing is wide-spread among teenage students. The current study extends that work to an adult student population. Findings: The findings show that knowledge sharing of this type is a common and even central feature of students’ college life and study behavior. It takes place through a variety of small and larger social network-based peer groups of different formations, including mostly college students but at time also practicing, experienced teachers. Sharing groups are formed on the spot for short term purposes or are stable, continuous over longer time periods. The contents shared are predominantly lesson summaries, material for exams, reading summaries, and lesson plans. They are used immediately or stored for future use, as students have access to vast data bases of stored materials that have been compiled throughout the years by students of previous cohorts. Teacher students mentioned a range of reasons for sharing, and overall regard it very positive. However, some downsides were also acknowledged (i.e., superficial learning, exclusion, attentional overload, and interruptions). Recommendations for Practitioners: College faculty and teaching staff should be cognizant and informed about these widespread peer-based knowledge sharing practices and consider whether perhaps changes in teaching formats and task assignments are required as a result. Future Research: Future research should extend this work to other higher education settings, cultures and countries, and should map the perceptions of higher education teaching staff about peer-to-peer, online knowledge sharing.


Author(s):  
A. E. Starchenko ◽  
M. V. Semina

Social networks have emerged relatively recently in human life, but have already become an integral part of it. Companies tell about themselves, their activities, innovations, promotions and events in their profiles. This helps increase audience coverage, tell more about your brand, products, services. People in personal accounts have the opportunity to share their lives and creativity through photos, videos and texts. Now it is not necessary to receive higher education to become an operator, director or actor whose talent is recognized by society. It is enough to start a page on the social network and start sharing your knowledge and creativity. To find out why people post photos, videos and write texts on their social networks, a pilot sociological study was carried out. The method of deep interview with active users of social networks was chosen to carry out the study. The interview allowed getting unique information, to learn the opinion of users about social networks, the impact of the new way of communication on their life, to identify the reasons why users start and maintain profiles. The respondents were 20 users of social networks between the ages of 19 and 22. Interviewees have profiles on the most popular Instagram and Vkontakte networks. As a result of the analysis of the interview, a tendency was revealed to differ in the perception of users of their actions on the social network and similar actions of other users. Their content is perceived by them as opportunities to be in sight, as a resource to form their social status and an element of influence on their reference group. And the same content published by others is perceived as boasting.


Author(s):  
José Antonio Álvarez Bermejo ◽  
César Bernal Bravo ◽  
Manuel Jesús Rubia Mateos ◽  
Javier Roca Piera

Recent studies are focusing on how social networks impact the learning process and how students organize themselves to face collaborative tasks via these networks, as well as their impact on the learning outcomes of the students. In a number of these studies, learning social aspects are analyzed, showing, among other issues of interest, that participating in social networks positively affects students’ self-esteem. In this article it is shown how this applies to the university model being adopted in Europe. Nowadays, the student is limited by the class and by the restricted group of people enrolled in that same university degree. In which way can the university facilitate that students get to each other so that they can find aspects in common and therefore the set of relationships grows? This chapter shows how our university—Universidad de Almería, UAL—globalizes its campus providing access to every student, as well as how this social network is succeeding.


Author(s):  
Filipa M. Ribeiro ◽  
Miranda Lubbers

This chapter examines how knowledge networks of academics shape epistemic authority in higher education institutions. The issue is addressed with the approach of funds of knowledge (Bensimon, 2009) and social network theory. Social networks (of collaboration, influence, friendship, etc.) have been mainly approached with an emphasis on their actual structure and the relationship between position in that network and other features. However, little is known about how those networks of ties affect how knowledge is embodied, encoded, and enacted within higher education institutions at the interpersonal level. Rather than examining the specific qualities of any researcher's fund of knowledge, the authors focus on showing how the approach of funds of knowledge can be operationalised by social network analysis to investigate epistemic authority and epistemic change in research agendas. Knowledge networks are described as epistemic conduits, and the challenges of research in this topic are also discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Hwa Liou ◽  
Alan J. Daly

PurposeThis study responds to major administrative and policy priorities to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education by investigating a multi-sector ecosystem of regional organizations that support a STEM pipeline for education and careers.Design/methodology/approachWe use social network analysis to investigate an entire region within a geographic region of California which included 316 organizations that represent different stakeholder groups, including educational institutions (school districts, schools and higher education), government, private companies, museums, libraries and multiple community-based organizations. This STEM ecosystem reflects a systems-level analysis of a region from a unique social network perspective.FindingsResults indicate that organizations have a surface-level access to STEM-related information, but the deeper and more intense relationship which involves strategic collaboration is limited. Further, interactions around information and collaboration between organizations were purportedly in part to be about education, rarely included PK-12 schools and district as central actors in the ecosystem. In addition, while institutions of higher education occupy a central position in connecting and bridging organizations within the ecosystem, higher education's connectivity to the PK-12 education sector is relatively limited in terms of building research and practice partnerships.Originality/valueThis research has implications for how regional-level complex systems are analyzed, led and catalyzed and further reflects the need to intentionally attend to the growth of STEM networks.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-35
Author(s):  
Masumi Hori ◽  
Seishi Ono ◽  
Shinzo Kobayashi ◽  
Kazutsuna Yamaji ◽  
Toshihiro Kita ◽  
...  

With the development of social network services (SNS) on the Internet, the world has gained access to vast amounts of information resources, allowing people to carefully research and select what they need and want to share with others. The main idea behind open educational resources (OER) is providing freely accessible and openly licensed documents, which fits well with the online learning system using SNS. However, the gap between higher education and social network media in relation to shared activities and OER use remains a challenge. The main reason for this is that teachers lack knowledge of mutual assistance and the skills to use OER. Teachers are dissatisfied with having to use others' resources, which indicates that the problem lies in teachers' psychological conflicts and technical capabilities. Our learning platform, Creative Higher Education with Learning Objects (CHiLO), is based on e-textbooks and aims to develop a flexible learning environment. The CHiLO e-textbooks were developed with a completely new design that considered large-scale online courses, such as open online courses. The core component of CHiLO is the CHiLO Book, which is created in EPUB3 format and has media-rich contents, including graphics, animations, audios and embedded videos. Our set of experimental outcomes shows that CHiLO, which includes not only Web services but also e-textbooks, is easy for teachers to handle.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document