New Frontiers for E-Learning in Education

Big Data research is playing a leading role in investigating a wide group of issues fundamentally emerging concerning Database, Data Warehousing, and Data Mining research. Analytics research is intended to develop complex procedures running over large-scale data repositories with the objective of extracting useful knowledge hidden in such repositories. A standout amongst the most noteworthy application situations where Big Data emerge is, without uncertainty, logical figuring. Here, researchers and analysts create immense measures of information everyday by means of investigations (e.g., disciplines like high vitality material science, space science, bioinformatics, etc.). Nevertheless, separating helpful learning for basic leadership purposes from these enormous, vast scale data repositories are practically inconceivable for genuine Data Base Management Systems (DBMS), is inspired investigation tools.

Detecting Online Learners' Reading Ability via Eye-Tracking

Nurturing the motivation to read is an important instructional goal. There can be a number of reasons for a learner to have problems with reading in online learning environments: (1) eyes being unable to scan easily along a line of print; or (2) as a result of concentrating on controlling the eyes concentration, the short-term memory become impaired. The study reported in this chapter used eye tracking method to provide a useful experimental design for exploring reading performance of university online learners. Different eye-tracking experiments were carried out to help informing the teachers to improve the learning environment and be able to do more accurate assessment about what the students were attending to on the screen.

Cloud Computing Assessment for Students' Social Presence in Relation to Satisfaction and Perceived Learning

Many higher education institutions are hoping to enhance student engagement in learning environment for improving the educational experiences and outcomes. Therefore, providing expectations of learners and using new technology environments to facilitate their teaching and learning activities are prominent to make universities competitive. A solution can be cloud computing which is the newest alternative in current educational environments and has significant impact on teaching and learning. This study explores the cloud-based educational environment and discusses how universities may take advantage of cloud computing in terms of students' social presence in relation to satisfaction and perceived learning. This study conducted a survey consisting of 13 questions among students from a public university in the southern region of peninsular Malaysia. The total number of respondents is 103 students. Through this study, a basis for the investigation of cloud computing in higher education is successfully established.

Cultural Implications for Student Engagement in Online Learning

The main goal of this research is to investigate how learners with different cultural background differ in their interaction style and visual behavior in multimedia-enhanced education, more specifically between groups from the African vs. Asian regions. The researchers conducted a controlled eye-tracking experiment to explore and evaluate the visual behavior of African, Afghan, Japanese and Chinese learners when scanning through different online multimedia contents. The analysis of their eye-gaze patterns and heat-maps revealed significant differences in terms of learners' interaction style, gender, color, text or multimedia preferences. This cross-cultural investigation collectively contributes towards effective use of multimedia technologies in education that ultimately increases learners' engagement and retention.

MOOC for Student Learning and Active Engagement

Online education is currently led with MOOC education platform in a scalable way to satisfy the need of the specialized student community. With the adoption of MOOC, students not only study for course credits, but also to learn the newest technologies in the market. Several MOOC providers offer thousands of online courses using knowledge experts in the fields. Thus, MOOC fills the knowledge gap between the academics and industry by offering the on-demand courses, which may not be available in the course curriculum. These MOOC courses are offered either free or payment. At the successful completion of the course, most MOOC platforms give the certification to the participants. MOOC is already doing revolution in higher education and online education. This chapter deals with MOOC model and its evolution and need. The different types and categories of MOOCs are listed. The different MOOC providers and their course criteria are also discussed. This chapter identifies and narrates the implementation issues in the MOOC model. The future research challenges are also summarized.

Modern Online Learning Tools Over the Platform of Virtual/Augmented Reality

In this chapter, we are to develop the idea of using online virtual reality (OVR) or online augmented reality (OAR) concepts for redesigning academic laboratory equipment or any kind of virtual classes to enhance the efficiency of learning process. One of the main advantages of OVR is the interactions of students with each other from different locations. In the framework of the OVR lab, students are beyond the physical limitations. In virtual classroom environments similar to the real classrooms, one can walk in and see auxiliary objects made by the teacher to improve the learning efficiency. The VR setup provides the opportunity for surgeons to have a realistic picture of post-operation. In the subject of interior design, students can easily change and select various elements including the texture, color levels, the context, lights, shadows, and location of various apparatus. A questionnaire was set to get feedbacks from the students with very much positive result. The virtual world can get more and more similar to the reality.

Student Engagement Practices for Computer Science Students in Online Learning Environments

Online learning has many challenges, and student engagement is one of them. Computer science students differ from most other disciplines. As a consequence, students typically find it easier to adapt to the new learning environment, but at the same time, they are more demanding on the tools and services offered to enhance their learning experience and engagement. This chapter discusses the various student engagement practices used today and their applicability to computer science students in online learning. The investigation will refer to case studies published and their relation to the concepts presented in this chapter. Computer science student engagement in online platforms is directly associated with positive learning experience from the content and context to interface to the interaction design a course embodies. Finally, a framework of best practices for student engagement for computer science students will be provided.

Impact of Student Engagement in Online Learning Environments

Online learning is a fast-growing technology in an educational field which uses internet as a media to deliver the educational contents to the students. The main research area in online learning is to identify the disengaged learners and motivate them. The success of online learning systems depends on how quickly it identifies the disengaged learners and techniques used to reengage them. Through this chapter, we are going to discuss briefly about the online learning, advantages and disadvantages of online learning, importance of motivation in online learning, types of motivation, the motivational theories related to student engagement and finally discuss about various disengagement detection techniques in online learning.

Autonomous Learning and Skill Accreditation

This research article promotes Multimedia Learning in the sphere of Medical Education and Practice. It describes how learners can acquire educational experiences as e-learning experiences. Indeed, medical training seems to be the last frontier, not only for remote and distant learning, but also for any form of non-formal or non-typical education, at least in pre-graduate level. It seems that the main reasons for not having achieved on-line learning are the Complexity of the Content, and the Type of Learning, which are unique, in some sense set apart from the main paradigm for learning that governs most other sciences. Overall, these two factors, alongside the neurophysiological interaction of e-Learning users, require considerable resources to ensure a constant flow of accredited education. Can this be changed?

Developing an Engaging Online Engineering Ethics Course for Future Engineers

This chapter describes the process of developing both an engaging and motivating online ethics course for future engineers; and includes major concepts in engineering ethics beginning with why engineering students should study ethics at all. Next the various levels of ethics are examined, which include personal, organizational, and global ethics, and how each level then applies to the profession of engineering. Ethical behavior, ethical dilemmas and whistle-blowing are also defined and discussed. Ethical decision-making models, which are used to solve ethical dilemmas, are explained and examples are presented to engage students in the process. The significance of how engineers are held to higher standard and must adhere to both their professional code of ethics along with their organization's code of ethics is also emphasized. Understanding the role of ethical leadership and how it impacts an organization follows. Finally, engaging online methods for teaching ethics to engineering students will be explored throughout.