Archive for the ‘Theory Development’ Category

Moving Towards Sustainable Policy and Practice – A Five Level Framework for Online Learning Sustainability

This paper addresses the issue of sustainability in online learning in higher education. It introduces and discusses a five-level framework for helping higher education institutions to make the transition from enterprise to sustainable policy and practice in online learning. In particular, it responds to evidence in the literature regarding the lack of sustainability in online […]

Complexity: A Leader’s Framework for Understanding and Managing Change in Higher Education

Complex adaptive systems offer higher education leaders a framework for understanding dramatic systemic change as well as approaches to engaging, managing, and driving change. EDUCAUSE Review

No Significant Difference – Unless you are a Jumper

Much of the e-education literature suggests that there is no significant difference in aggregate student learning outcomes between online and face-to-face instruction. In this study, we develop a model that forecasts the grade that individual students would have most likely earned in the alternate class setting. Students for whom the difference between the actual grade […]

The Moderating Effects of Group Work on the Relationship Between Motivation and Cognitive Load

Semi-formal learning is used to describe learning that is directed towards the goals of a formal learning institution but outside of the learning structure of a specific class. Students studying online may form semi-formal groups to increase their knowledge of the content by interacting with other learners taking the same class. This study of cyber […]

Measuring Self-Regulation in Self-Paced Open and Distance Learning Environments

Previous studies have described many scales for measuring self-regulation; however, no scale has been developed specifically for self-paced open and distance learning environments. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a scale for determining the self-regulated learning skills of distance learners in self-paced open and distance learning courses. Participants of this study were […]

A comprehensive overview on the foundations of formal concept analysis

The immersion of voluminous collection of data is inevitable almost everywhere. The invention of mathematical models to analyse the patterns and trends of the data is an emerging necessity to extract and predict useful information in any Knowledge Discovery from Data (KDD) process. The Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) is an efficient mathematical model used in […]

Conversational Functions for Knowledge Building: a Study of an Online Course at University

Interactions in online courses have been studied by analyzing Conversational Functions used by participants. Cacciamani, Perrucci Khanlari (2016) developed a coding scheme, named CF4KB, consisting of four Global Conversational Functions (GCF), each articulated in two Specific Conversational Functions (SCF). The aims of the present study were to explore: 1) What are the more frequently SCF […]

Moulding student emotions through computational psychology: affective learning technologies and algorithmic governance

Recently psychology has begun to amalgamate with computer science approaches to big data analysis as a new field of “computational psychology” or “psycho-informatics,” as well as with new “psycho-policy” approaches associated with behaviour change science, in ways that propose new ways of measuring, administering and managing individuals and populations. In particular, “social-emotional learning” has become […]

The viability of online competency based education: An organizational analysis of the impending paradigm shift

Over the past several decades, workplace demands have changed from having an industrial emphasis on physical inputs and natural resources, to a knowledge based economy with a reliance on intellectual capabilities (Block, 1990; Ronchi, 1985; Sum & Jessop, 2013). The knowledge economy is defined as “production and service based on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to […]

The ecology of the open practitioner: a conceptual framework for open research

Open Educational Practices (OEP) have gained traction internationally over the last fifteen years, with individuals, institutions, and governments increasingly interested in the affordances of openness. Whilst initiatives, policies, and support mechanisms are evident, there is an ever-present danger of localised contexts being unintentionally unrecognised, which has a negative effect on mainstreaming the practice sustainably. This […]