Student Online Activity in Blended Learning: A Learning Analytics Perspective of Professional Teacher Education Studies in Finland

Distance learning is rapidly gaining ground globally. In this case study, we focused on professional (vocational) teacher education (PTE) student online activity in a blended learning context. We applied learning analytics (LA) to identify students’ ( n = 19) online study patterns. Our key interest was in determining when and what kinds of online activity and behavior PTE students engage in during their studies. We applied quantitative content analysis to analyze the students’ behavior. Moodle’s event log enabled us to identify active hours and days, variation in use of learning materials, the impact of interventions, and stumbling blocks to student learning in the study unit. Based on our data, educator availability is an essential factor for good student engagement in digital learning environments. Interaction forums are important for PTE students effective learning. Monday and Tuesday afternoons are the most effective times for educators to be available for PTE students. There is a clear need for contact learning in professional teacher education, even when operating in digital learning environments. It plays an essential role in keeping students’ activity alive. It could be beneficial to plan a post-process for students who do not graduate as planned, including regular group meetings for supporting studies, receiving guidance, and meeting peers. PTE students’ behavior in a distance learning environment in the context of blended learning follows Zipf’s law, which models the occurrence of distinct objects in particular sorts of collections.

PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ NATURAL SCIENCE DIGITAL LITERACY COMPETENCE IN DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

This study describes a research focused on primary teachers’ evaluation of their students’ digital literacy as a basic competence in the structure of natural science literacy of research and comprehension competence. With the term, primary teachers we mean teachers of first three grades of compulsory school. The comparison of basic computer skills between Generation Z and Generation Alpha revealed, contrary to expectations, a very small progress. The consequence of this circumstance are the problems associated with the implementation of natural science curricular goals in digital environments of remote teaching in school closure period. A questionnaire given to 176 primary teachers, revealed which digital learning environments could be chosen for science lessons and which curricular goals could/could not be achieved with this level of Generation Alpha students’ digital literacy competence. The results showed that the digital environment is more problematic and unfavorable for Generation Alpha in the field of natural science, as teachers showed a higher frequency of avoiding natural science goals than social science content. Keywords: distance learning environment, generation Alpha, natural science digital literacy competence, natural science education

The multi-disciplinary approach to an interdisciplinary virtual exchange

New communication technologies are changing the way we work and communicate with people around the world. Given this reality, students in Higher Education (HE) worldwide need to develop knowledge in their area of study as well as attitudes and values that will enable them to be responsible and ethical global citizens in the workforce they will soon enter, regardless of the degree. Different institutional and country-specific requirements are important factors when developing an international Virtual Exchange (VE) program. Digital learning environments such as ProGlobe – Promoting the Global Exchange of Ideas on Sustainable Goals, Practices, and Cultural Diversity – offer a platform for collaborating with diverse students around the world to share and reflect on ideas on sustainable practices. Students work together virtually on a joint interdisciplinary project that aims to create knowledge and foster cultural diversity. This project was successfully integrated into each country’s course syllabus through a common global theme; sustainability. The focus of this paper is to present multi-disciplinary perspectives on the opportunities and challenges in implementing a VE project in HE. Furthermore, it will present the challenges that country coordinators dealt with when planning and implementing their project. Given the disparity found in each course syllabus, project coordinators uniquely handled the project goal, approach, and assessment for their specific course and program. Not only did the students and faculty gain valuable insight into different aspects of collaboration when working in interdisciplinary HE projects, they also reflected on their own impact on the environment and learned to listen to how people in different countries deal with environmental issues. This approach provided students with meaningful intercultural experiences that helped them link ideas and concepts about a global issue through the lens of their own discipline as well as other disciplines worldwide.

Academic Self-Regulation, Chronotype and Personality in University Students During the Remote Learning Phase due to COVID-19

During the COVID-19 shutdown phase in Germany, universities stopped presence teaching and students had to turn to digital instruction. To examine their capability to cope with the changed learning situation, we assessed how basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration, motivational regulation, vitality, and self-efficacy of 228 German biology-teaching students (75% female) relate to their chronotype and personality (Big Five). Specifically, we were interested in possible effects of chronotype and personality dimensions on variables related to successful remote learning. Since the pandemic and remote learning will accompany teaching and learning at university in 2021, predictors of successful remote learning need to be identified to support student learning optimally in digital learning environments. In our study, morning-oriented, conscientious, and open students with low neuroticism seem to better cope with the shutdown environment due to vitality, self-efficacy, and partly their self-determined motivation. Moreover, our findings implicate students might need different support depending on their chronotype and personality during the digital learning phase.

AI-Based Virtual Teacher Assistants

Современное образование находится на рубеже цифровой эпохи в преподавании, когда повсеместно внедряются новые методы обучения с использованием передовых информационно-коммуникационных технологий для дистанционных форм общения между педагогом и слушателями, автоматизации образовательного процесса с применением нейронных сетей и машинного обучения. Разрабатываемые цифровые образовательные среды и платформы не только позволяют учителю готовить и предоставлять школьникам и студентам учебный материал в удобной цифровой форме, которые доступны им в любом месте земного шара через сеть Интернет, но и существенно увеличивают нагрузку на преподавателя ростом объема необходимого для подготовки занятий образовательного контента. При этом преподаватель на дистанционной форме обучения фактически вынужден находиться круглые сутки на связи со своими слушателями. Использование цифровых образовательных сред с автоматизированной проверкой заданий позволяет освободить педагога от части рутинной работы. Другая возможность состоит в использовании в курсах виртуальных ассистентов преподавателя чат-ботов, обученных с помощью нейросетевых технологий отвечать на широкий круг вопросов студентов, без участия педагога. В статье излагаются результаты исследования и разработки подобных виртуальных помощников педагога. Одновременно указывается, что собранный материал диалогов бота со студентами позволяет использовать результаты для косвенного анализа успеваемости студента и формирования персональных образовательных траекторий. Today the education is on the verge of the digital age as new learning approaches with advanced information and communication distant learning technologies, and academic process digitalization with neural networks and machine learning. The new digital learning environments and platforms help the teacher to develop and deliver digital learning content for high school and university students making it available globally over the Internet. However, the teacher efforts are multiplied, as more and more content is to be developed. Even more, an elearning teacher is expected to be available 24/7. Digital learning environments with a computerassisted assessment feature remove some of the burdens from the educator. Another option is using virtual teacher assistants or chatbots based on trained neural networks. they can answer a wide range of student questions without the teacher’s intervention. We studied the development of such virtual teacher assistants. The recorded student/chatbot scripts can be used to indirectly estimate the student’s academic performance, and to offer a customized learning path.