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Automatically detecting cognitive engagement beyond behavioral indicators: A case of online professional learning community

2021, Zhang, Si, Gao, Qianqian, Wen, Yun, Li, Mengsiying, Wang, Qiyun

Online discourse is widely used in diverse contexts of learning and professional training, but superficial interactions and digression often occur. In the face of these problems and the large-scale unstructured text data, the traditional way of learning analytics has been challenged in terms of providing timely intervention and feedback. In this paper, a workflow for automatically detecting in-service teachers’ cognitive engagement in an online professional learning community is described. Discourse data of 1834 in-service teachers involved in a teacher professional development program was collected and processed using the Word2vec toolkit to generate lexical vectors. The method of vector space projection was used to calculate the new information contained in each post, cosine similarity was used to calculate topic relevance, and cluster analysis was used to explore in-service teachers’ discourse characteristics. Results showed that in-service teachers’ average contribution was 4.59 posts and the average length of each post was 39.47 characters in Chinese. In the mathematics online professional learning community, the average amount of new information contained in each post was 0.221 and in-service teachers’ posts contained much new information in the early stages of online discourse. Most in-service teachers’ posts were relevant to the discussion topic. Cluster analysis showed three different groups of posts with unique characteristics: high topic relevance with much new information, high topic relevance with little new information, and low topic relevance with little new information. Finally, limitations are discussed and future research directions are proposed.

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A panorama of online education in China

2003, Zhu, Zhiting, Gu, Xiaoqing, Wang, Qiyun

This article presents an overview of various efforts toward developing online education in China, and describes the progress that has been made both in the areas of higher education and basic education in recent years. In addition, some on-going national projects related to online education are briefly introduced. Finally, some issues pertinent to online education are discussed and recommendations for further developments are made.

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Design of an interactive online learning environment

2018, Wang, Qiyun, Quek, Choon Lang

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The affordances of weblogs and discussion forums for learning: A comparative analysis

2008, Wang, Qiyun, Woo, Huay Lit

The rapid growth of technology has made online tools available for education. The ability to discern the characteristics of these tools and to use them appropriately for educational purposes has become increasingly critical. Weblogs and discussion forums are among those up-and-coming tools that have great potential in supporting learning. They have both common features and differences. They are therefore not to be used in the same way for maximum effectiveness. This article compares the affordances of weblogs and discussion forums by following an EST framework, one composed of three key components educational, social, and technological. It also discusses the implications that the affordances have on teaching and learning.

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Guiding teachers in the process of ICT integration: Analysis of three conceptual models

2009, Wang, Qiyun

The rapid development of emerging technologies has resulted in the availability of a number of information and communication technologies (ICT) tools. Teachers must have the competency to choose and integrate proper tools into teaching and learning. Over the years, a number of conceptual models have been developed to guide the process of ICT integration. Some of the models look similar on the surface but are different in many aspects. Better discernment of the differences will enable teachers to follow the models more appropriately. This article compares the differences among the TPACK, PST, and Col models on the key components of content, pedagogy, social interaction, and technology.

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Verifying causal relationships among the presences of the community of inquiry framework in the Chinese context

2017, Ma, Zhiqiang, Wang, Jing, Wang, Qiyun, Kong, Lili, Wu, Yajie, Yang, Hao

The purpose of this study was to verify a Chinese version of Community of Inquiry (CoI) instrument with learning presence and explore the casual relationships of the factors in the instrument. This study first examined the reliability and validity of the instrument. All four presences had acceptable levels of reliability (all Cronbach's a>.765 or higher). The confirmatory factor modelling approach was used to assess its validity. Then, the study used path analysis and regression analysis to explore the causal relationships of the presences. The key findings showed that teaching and social presences directly influenced the perceptions of learning presence. Learning presence was a partial mediating variable of interactional relationship within CoI constructs.

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Students’ perspectives on the design and implementation of a blended synchronous learning environment

2018, Wang, Qiyun, Huang, Changqin, Quek, Choon Lang

This study investigated a blended synchronous learning environment (BSLE), which was designed for a group of master’s students taking a course at a teacher education institute. The BSLE was created for the majority of the students to attend the course face-to-face and at the same time allowed the rest to join the identical sessions using videoconferencing from different locations. The purpose of the study was to find out what learning experiences and perceptions the students had with regard to the design and implementation of the BSLE. Results show that the BSLE could extend certain features of the face-to-face classroom instruction to the online students and the students liked the flexibility and convenience of attending lessons via the two way videoconferencing at remote sites. This study further identified that smooth communication between online students and the instructor and between the online students and classroom students, the engagement of the online students and the redesign of certain instructional activities, balanced attention from the instructor to the classroom students as well as the online students and the quality of the audio were crucial for the environment to be effective.

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Investigating the period of switching roles in pair programming in a primary school

2017, Zhong, Baichang, Wang, Qiyun, Chen, Jie, Li, Yi

Pair programming (PP) is a useful approach to fostering computational thinking for young students. However, there are many factors impacting on the effectiveness of PP. The period of switching roles between the driver and the navigator is often ignored by researchers. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the impact of the switching period on PP. We conducted a PP experiment in four classes in the sixth grade in a primary school. The results indicated that (a) the semi-free switch was more effective for the learning achievement than the fixed periods, and the preference for adopting the fixed time interval to switch roles existed in previous studies seems to be a kind of prejudice; (b) students who switched roles every 5 minutes and semi-freely were more enjoyable than those who switched roles in every task and in every class session. Moreover, the period of switching roles in every class session decreased students’ enjoyment after PP; (c) the frequency of switching roles decreased significantly, but the negotiation between the driver and the navigator became more active with time going in the semi-free class. Implications for teaching are also discussed.

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Teaching and learning with social media

2021, Wang, Qiyun

In this chapter, the term social media is used as a singular – through media is a plural form of medium – to refer to the type of online social platform that allows users to meet virtually or get in touch with one another through social activities such as sharing of photographs, updating of states, and taking part in conversations. Examples of social media platforms include Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. With the rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT), social media use has grown substantially over the years. According to the recent statistical result published on the Statistics Portal (2021), there are about 2.7 billion monthly active users of Facebook, 2.0 billion users of WhatsApp and 1.78 billion viewers of YouTube. Most of them belong to young adult age group, and many of them are primary or secondary school students.

Social media has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Though it is initially designed for social interaction like sharing information and keeping in contact with others but not for educational purposes, it has great potential for teaching and learning because of its participatory nature and interactivity. This chapter describes the potential benefits and risks of using social media for teaching and learning. Three examples of using various social media platforms (i.e., Twitter, Facebook and YouTube) for teaching and learning are described. In addition, ways of using social media to support teaching and learning effectively are suggested for teachers.

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Future learning with technology

2022, Chen, Wenli, Wang, Qiyun

We are living in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) world. It is hard to predict what would happen in the future as no one knew how COVID-19 could affect our lives and school education a few years ago. Technologies are transforming teaching and learning in many ways. What will future learning look like? What are the technological tools learners will be using in the future? Researchers and educators believe that future learning incorporates the following features.