Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society

Second Cover

Managing Editor — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 11:46:38 +0000

Open teaching: research and practice on open, innovative and engaging pedagogies

Fabio Nascimbeni, Ulf-Daniel Ehlers — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Towards an Operational Definition of Open Teaching

Don Olcott — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Open pedagogy practices: a case study in undergraduate education

Gigliola Paviotti, Ilaria D'Angelo, Catia Giaconi, Alessio Cavicchi — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 14:11:57 +0000

The study reports about an open education practice in undergraduate education, by analysing the openness of a course in which the teacher was not a ‘self-declared’ open educator. It explores data from involved educators, students and entrepreneurs, who participated in a project-based learning pathway carried out online. Data collection included observation of the process by an external researcher, final questionnaires and interviews to participants. Conclusions argue that open education practices (OEPs) can also be found in courses which have not been designed purposely as ‘open’, and that further work is needed to understand students’ perceptions in open practices.

DEPIT application: open and shared digital artefacts for visible design

Chiara Laici, Maila Pentucci — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 12:02:18 +0000

In the complex contexts of nowadays classes, there is the need for a Learning Design not limited to linearize both objectives and contents, but that is guide, orientation, support to the teaching-learning process. This contribution describes the implementation of DEPIT app for learning design, developed as a part of a project financed by the European Community and carried out by three networks of schools and 4 universities through DBIR methodology. This app produces visual, digital and multimodal design artefacts, which can be used with students in a classroom during the action and shared with a community of teachers. According to OER principles, this app is internationally disseminated through a MOOC available on a European platform. Teachers' design becomes common heritage (Open Educational Practices) between teachers and students and it is replicable and reusable in different contexts. The experimentation of this app highlighted its transformative feature in comparison with the teachers' design practices, which become explicit, sustainable and shared with students.

Self-directed open educational practices for a decolonized South African curriculum: a process of localization for learning

Jako Olivier — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 14:13:55 +0000

This conceptual article explores self-directed localized open educational practices for a decolonized South African higher education curriculum. From the historical context, language demography and especially due to student protests regarding the curriculum the need for a decolonized South African curriculum is evident. In this article, an overview is presented about the context-specific issues in relation to decolonization and language. It is proposed that in order to move towards a decolonized South African curriculum, there should be a self-directed learning approach to open educational practices which would involve carefully planned and supported localization efforts. This process also implies acknowledging both internal and external localization as done in a structured or even student-driven manner. Furthermore, localization means drawing on translations study theories pertaining to specifically dynamic equivalence. This approach would require increasingly accommodating languages other than English in the higher education context and as such language attitude planning efforts are needed. Finally, open educational practices would require an open ongoing process which provides agency to South African teachers and students to use the language of their choice to engage with content applicable and relevant to their contexts. In addition, this would imply including indigenous knowledge in order to address the needs of a decolonized curriculum. In conclusion, this article presents some practical recommendations towards self-directed localized open educational practices for a decolonized South African higher education curriculum.

An Open and Multi-Layer Web Platform for Higher Music Education

Adriano Baratè, Luca Andrea Ludovico — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This paper describes an open platform for the advanced experience of music information. Based on the IEEE 1599 standard, such an environment supports an integrated and synchronized multi-layer description of music pieces. This approach can be particularly suitable in higher music education, where the structured organization of a multiplicity of free resources can foster advanced and engaging learning activities. After addressing the subject of openness in music education and introducing the key features of the IEEE 1599 format, some clarifying examples and educational scenarios will be discussed.

Wikipedia as OER: the “Learning with Wikipedia” project

Corrado Petrucco, Cinzia Ferranti — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 11:54:39 +0000

The paper presents the results of the “Learning with Wikipedia” project which involved 1200 students and 30 faculty members at the University of Padova in creating and expanding encyclopedia articles on various subject-specific topics. Teaching activities were developed which considered Wikipedia not so much as a container for Open Educational Resources, but as a true learning environment, well organized with precise rules that can stimulate instructors to adopt Open Educational Practices. Students attended workshops where they were introduced to the project’s aims, the competences expected of them, and the procedures for contributing to the encyclopedia. One of the most significant points that emerged during the project was the importance of stimulating the full set of digital competences (for example finding and evaluating information). Gaining these competences is essential for the activities’ success and for participating, now and in the future in an extended community based on OER. That's why we investigated students’ and instructors’ perceptions regarding a set of digital competences gained by working with Wikipedia. The project was also able to make students and instructors understand that writing encyclopedia articles is not a mere academic exercise, but is a Service Learning activity that benefits the entire community, and that Wikipedia should be considered as a participatory social process and not just as a means of learning subject-specific content.

Start@unito as Open Educational Practice in Higher Education

Marina Marchisio, Sergio Rabellino, Matteo Sacchet — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 17:06:32 +0000

Open Educational Practices mainly refer to the use of Open Educational Resources, the adoption of innovative pedagogical models, and educators and learners’ engagement in both formal and non-formal learning settings (Cronin & MacLaren, 2018; Koseoglu & Bozkurt, 2018). There are many experiences of open education context all over the world, and international organizations are redefining concepts of education that contribute to a change of perspective (UNESCO, 2019). In the context of open education, start@unito is an experience that delivers 50 open online courses in a Digital Learning Environment. Moreover, start@unito teaching practices are devoted to improving actual and prospective university students’ learning and training, using innovative methodologies, like automatic formative assessment and adaptive teaching and learning, and technology, with advanced tools connected via an integrated system. This research analyzes the model of start@unito to show that it falls under the Open Educational Practices. The analysis compares the pedagogical strategies and evaluates adherence to the international OpenEdu Framework (Inamorato dos Santos et al., 2016). Quantitative and qualitative data promote the positivity of the start@unito experience. This research will show how such a model can improve OEP because of some of its peculiarities, such as the continuous availability and the use of adaptive methodologies.

Making Open Educational Practices real. The case of “The Grand Challenge 2020”

Ulf-Daniel Ehlers — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The article presents a case study of a course design which is based on the concept of open educational practices. The course took place during times of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in which universities in Europe had to stop their presential operation and had to move teaching and learning entirely online. The case study presents in which way the concept of student-centred learning, of problem-based learning and of involving the public into higher education learning has been realised. Students’ feedback is analysed and conclusions are drawn.

Student experiences of Open Educational Practices: a systematic literature review

Jo Axe, Elizabeth Childs, Irwin DeVries, Keith Webster — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this literature review was to gain a deeper understanding of student experiences of open educational practices (OEP). The research was conducted against the backdrop of a small, publicly funded university in Canada that offers a masters-level program delivered largely though open learning environments. A systematic literature review identified both benefits and challenges to OEP, related to open learning digital environments, tools and activities as well as institutional services and supports. Students further experienced benefits in working with others, developing a sense of self, and increased learning engagement. They also reported challenges associated with anxiety and with practical aspects such as privacy, copyright, and time management. Much can be learned from research into existing collaborative and related educational practices that preceded concepts of OEP. The study recommends increased focus on scaffolding for faculty and students in the implementation of OEP, as well as more research into student experiences.

The impact of a Technology-based approach for the learning of Mathematics at secondary school level

Perienen Appavoo — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The main purpose of this research project was to determine how technology helps students to engage in Mathematics learning at school. One hundred and forty-five students (girls & boys) of varying learning performances studied the topic fraction using technology-enhanced lessons. The scores of a summative test were compared with those students who had studied the topic using the traditional approach. Results confirmed that the mastery of higher order skills can be enhanced using technological tools. Gender bias was also investigated and the results showed that high performing boys benefitted more from the experiment. Regarding the affective domain of learning, students across all levels of performance were positively impacted and showed much interest in the new learning approach. A theoretical framework, the Technology Integration Model (TIM) evolved from this study and should serve as guiding framework for all major stakeholders involved in the process of empowering students with effective digital learning content.

Does the sequence of flipped and lecture-based classes affect the academic achievement and satisfaction of medical students?

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In a flipped classroom, class’ lecture is delivered as a video to students before the class is held, and the actual time of the class is spent on problem solving and discussions. As there is a need for further clarification of the way of using this method, in this study, we assessed the effect of the sequence of flipped and lecture-based classes on medical students’ learning and satisfaction in Emergency Medicine theoretical course. For this purpose, 59 medical students participated in this quasi-experimental study who were divided into two flipped-first and lecture-first groups. Eight topics were selected to be taught. Firstly, students took a pre-test covering these topics’ objectives. Afterward, in the lecture-first group, 4 topics were taught through lecturing while the next 4 topics were taught through flipped classroom method. Then the teaching method was shifted for the flipped-first group. Finally, students’ answered the satisfaction survey and post-test questions. Indeed, not only the final score of the flipped-based topics in both groups was significantly higher than lecture-based ones (P-value = 0.022), but also the post-test score of all topics were significantly higher in the flipped-first group (P-value = 0.032). In addition, the satisfaction score for the flipped-based topics was higher than the lecture-based one (P-value = 0.011). As a conclusion, flipped classroom approach could increase medical students’ learning as well as their satisfaction and it is recommended that flipped classes be applied from the beginning of the course to be more effective.

Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework and Course Design as Predictors of Satisfaction in Emergency Remote Teaching: Perspectives of Hospitality Management Students

Vidya Patwardhan, Shreelatha Rao, Thirugnanasambantham, Narayan Prabhu — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) is a popular framework to measure meaningful engagement and communication in distance learning environments, where it is claimed that three interactive elements of presence (teaching, social, and cognitive) enhance the quality of education and learning outcomes. Though, several articles have been published in the context of distance education, research suggests lack of empirical evidence on its efficacy in emergency remote teaching. This study investigated the applicability of CoI in remote teaching environment as a predictor of hospitality student’s perception of satisfaction. In doing so, we tested the proposition that course design variables mediate the relationship between CoI elements and student satisfaction. A theoretical model is developed and tested using data collected from 621 hospitality students from an Institute of Eminence in India. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling and PROCESS macro 3.4 - Model 4. Overall, the results showed that the proposed model fits the observed relationships accept for cognitive presence. The results implied partial mediation by course design in the relationship between CoI and satisfaction. Among the three presences, the major determinant of satisfaction was teaching presence. We believe that this model could serve as a guide to possible future studies to explore the relevance of CoI framework in remote teaching. The outcomes of this study make significant theoretical and practical contributions to the key stakeholders to design a satisfying online curricula and encourage blended learning.