Cyber-Truancy

Bystander apathy has been a source of debate for decades. In the past half-century, psychologists developed theoretical frameworks to understand bystander activity, commonly referred to as bystander intervention models (BIMs). More recently, BIMs have been modified to facilitate initiatives to prevent various forms of online victimization. This chapter begins with a review of BIMs and recent applications of bystander intervention research to online environments. We also present several future directions for research along with applications for reducing technology-facilitated violence, including programming recommendations and theoretical development.

Objective – The aim of this study is to assess and compare the metacognitive awareness of university students in online and in-person learning environments. Secondly, the study aims to explore the students’ preferences for online and in-person learning to compare themetacognitive awareness of students based on their preferences. Methods – A total of 79 university students completed the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, providing self-reported data on their metacognitive awareness. The study used a paired sample t-test to compare mean scores of metacognitive awareness between online and in-person classroom settings. Additionally, participants evaluated their experiences with online and in-person learning using a pairwise comparison as a scaling method. Results – The t-test results indicate statistically significant differences in metacognitive awareness between online and in-person classroom settings. Specifically, significant differences were found in declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, planning, information management strategies, monitoring, debugging strategies, and evaluation of learning. Students showed higher levels of metacognitive awareness across all facets in traditional in-person learning setting. Descriptive analysis of scaling pairwise comparison revealed that online learning was strongly preferred for comfort, while in-person learning was preferred modality for motivation to study and active participation. In oppose to t-test results, ANOVA did not reveal significant differences in metacognitive awareness based on students’ preferences in online nor in traditional learning settings. Conclusions – The results provide valuable information on the metacognitive awareness and preferences of the students in two different learning environments.

As virtual high schools grow in numbers across America more interest is generated in how to successfully plan and implementing them. Part of planning, implementing, and sustaining suc-cessful virtual schools includes delivering quality professional development that has a positive impact upon students’ achievement. This article focuses on three virtual schools at different stages of maturity in order to describe such a model.

This chapter briefly profiles three virtual schools, each at a different stage of development, yet each dependent upon a successful and sustained distance education program for its professional staff in order to remain viable long into the future. As virtual schools become more accepted by the public and the attention given to the online schools shifts from their sources of funding to their standardized test scores, a model for sustained distance training and education must be in place to deliver quality professional development that can positively impact students’ achievement scores on standardized tests for each school’s online student population.

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to transition to online teaching almost overnight. This paper focuses on students’ perceptions of communication skills in a practice course in the spring of 2020. The beginning of the course was held face-to-face and conducted online at the end. We sought information regarding students’ experiences of online course in a skill-based course. Relying on knowledge about online communication, we selected three areas to focus on in online course. First, feedback is essential in the process of learning communication skills and is included in the course learning objectives. Second involves eliciting conversations in an online environment. The third area is the connection between the audience and the speaker in public speaking. Our goal was to develop the course according to student’s perceptions. At the end of the course, 26 students answered open-ended questions about the two forms of implementation. Using thematic analysis, five different themes were constructed: (1) positive perceptions of the course, (2) neutral perceptions of online course, (3) perceptions of the challenges in online course, (4) perceptions of public speaking, and (5) perceptions of feedback. During the course, the students learned much-appreciated computer-mediated communication. They believed that the good learning results were due to careful organization and connection to other students. While uncommon, few students perceived online course as neither good nor bad, just neutral. Nevertheless, online course was not without challenges; students identified several problems concerning, for example, conversations and non-verbal communication. Furthermore, students considered feedback to be successful; however, online public speaking was perceived as different from speaking to a physical audience. The results of this study indicate that in a skill-based course, the online format can be just as effective as the face-to-face format. However, especially because public speaking was regarded as different and participants appreciated practicing communication in the online setting, we suggest that students should have the opportunity to practice communication skills both online and face-to-face. Additionally, although conversations received special attention, it caused the most significant challenges in the online environment; therefore, we propose that solutions to address this problem must be investigated further.

This paper presents a study that was undertaken to examine human interaction with a pedagogical agent and the passive and active detection of such agents within a synchronous, online environment. A pedagogical agent is a software application which can provide a human like interaction using a natural language interface. These may be familiar from the smartphone interfaces such as ‘Siri' or ‘Cortana', or the virtual online assistants found on some websites, such as ‘Anna' on the Ikea website. Pedagogical agents are characters on the computer screen with embodied life-like behaviours such as speech, emotions, locomotion, gestures, and movements of the head, the eye, or other parts of the body. The passive detection test is where participants are not primed to the potential presence of a pedagogical agent within the online environment. The active detection test is where participants are primed to the potential presence of a pedagogical agent. The purpose of the study was to examine how people passively detected pedagogical agents that were presenting themselves as humans in an online environment. In order to locate the pedagogical agent in a realistic higher education online environment, problem-based learning online was used. Problem-based learning online provides a focus for discussions and participation, without creating too much artificiality. The findings indicated that the ways in which students positioned the agent tended to influence the interaction between them. One of the key findings was that since the agent was focussed mainly on the pedagogical task this may have hampered interaction with the students, however some of its non-task dialogue did improve students' perceptions of the autonomous agents' ability to interact with them. It is suggested that future studies explore the differences between the relationships and interactions of learner and pedagogical agent within authentic situations, in order to understand if students' interactions are different between real and virtual mentors in an online setting.

Servant leadership has the potential to improve student satisfaction with online learning. However, the relationship between servant leadership and student satisfaction in an online environment had not yet been understood at the level of the individual instructor. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to evaluate the relationship between online students’ perception of their instructor’s servant leadership style and the student’s satisfaction with the online instructor. We selected 155 online students at a major community college in the south-central United States to complete the Servant Leadership Questionnaire and the Student Evaluation of Teaching survey online. We examined the relationships between each of the five facets of perceived servant leadership style (altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping, and organizational stewardship) and student satisfaction. The results of the Spearman’s correlations showed a strong positive correlation between all servant leadership behaviors and student satisfaction, p < .001. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that the combination of altruistic calling, persuasive mapping, and wisdom strongly predicted student satisfaction with the instructor, F(3, 151) = 83.8, p < .001, R2= .63. The results of this study have filled a gap in the literature on the relationship between online student satisfaction and individual servant leadership behaviors. We recommend future research to investigate servant leadership in relationship to online learning at 4-year public, for-profit, and private institutions.

ABSTRACTWine sales continue to climb in both offline and online settings in the U.S. market. With online sales having a great impact on offline sales, it is important to look at all sales modes in understanding how to better market to consumers across spectrums. What this study aims to do is to utilize a stimulus–organism–response model to better understand wine sales, when it comes to online impulse buying. This study is anticipated to add knowledge to the understanding of impulse buying of wine and is a first step at gaining a better understanding of impulse buying of wine in online settings.

Evidence suggests that students with disabilities increasingly choose to participate in online courses at higher rates then other student populations. Research examining factors that influence the success of these students is inconclusive. This article addresses a national need for additional research by identifying challenges faced by special education teachers and students with learning disabilities in online environments; describing extant literature related to online learning and students with disabilities; and summarizing findings from a recent study that examined Universal Design for Learning (UDL) during synchronous lessons. The article concludes with interviews with leaders in virtual schools who bring to light the challenges and concerns facing the industry. Implications for professional development activities also are discussed.

Technology integration in language assessment has been regarded as a common strategy in an educational setting. However, teachers need to adjust the perception and cogency of assessment in an online setting as well as the concept of formative assessment in online environments. This research aimed to investigate the students' perception of online backchannel implementation as a formative assessment in improving the students' writing skills in an English classroom. For this purpose, a mixed-method was applied with a closed-ended questionnaire distributed to 32 students and semi-structured interviews carried out to 24 students at the eighth-grade students of a state junior high school in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. The collected data were then analyzed quantitatively using SPSS 23 and qualitatively. The findings revealed positive perceptions of online backchannel implementation as a formative assessment in improving their writing skills. They considered it a new and innovative process of an assessment that helped them get the maximum result of writing. Furthermore, students' motivation and confidence in writing were raised. This study's implication calls for the implementation of online backchannel in English class as a formative assessment during the writing process.

<p>Virtual schooling is an increasing trend for secondary education. Research of the communication practices in virtual schools has provided a myriad of suggestions for virtual school policies. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the activities and processes involved in the daily rituals of virtual school teachers and learners with the goal of determining how regular phone calls by teachers contributed to the work habits of students. Eight virtual teachers were observed attempting to contact more than 60 struggling learners. Phone conversations with 12 of these learners showed that teachers repeatedly attempted to help them. Eleven students were interviewed and indicated preferences for written communications. Ten additional teachers who were interviewed emphasized the difficulty they had in reaching students by phone and the lack of student responses to phone-call attempts. The teachers in the study provided additional data regarding their regular communication patterns. Archival records from more than 100 contact attempts showed that approximately 20% of the students responded to teacher phone calls and less than half of these students completed the work requested. The interview data revealed that teachers believe written communications or multiple forms of communication may be more effective than regular phone calls. Future research should extend current research by expanding on sample size and investigating alternate methods of communication. Further investigation of learner responses to phone calls and of nonresponsive students could add to this data.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>

Purpose – This study aims to explore whether hedonic motivations of Turkish consumers have any potential impact on their impulse buying tendencies (IBT) in the online environment. Besides, it also covers which dimension of hedonic shopping motivation has the strongest effect on online IBT. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted to test the structural model. A total of 430 Turkish online consumers served as the sample. Data analysis was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Findings – Findings confirm that hedonic value drives online IBT. While three dimensions of hedonic shopping motivation (adventure, relaxation and value) affect online IBT in a positive way, social shopping was related negatively to online IBT. It was also found that idea shopping does not have a significant effect on online IBT. Originality/value – Given the occurrence of impulse buying in online shopping and the importance of hedonic motivations on consumer behavior, this study provides useful insights into impulse buying behavior in an online setting. In developing markets like Turkey what is the role of hedonic shopping motivations in online IBT? This study is unique in addressing this question for Turkish online consumers.

Utilizing multimedia tools such as videos and audio clips can be an effective way to promote student learning and engagement in online settings. This study explores the implementation of a photo-rich comprehensive counseling center environment through which students of a semester-long online graduate psychology class learned about important research methodology concepts. Student feedback is provided along with implications for student learning in future online course endeavors. This multimedia course design was the recipient of the 2013 Sloan-C Effective Practices Award.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, the Innovation Management & Design Thinking course at NOVA IMS suddenly transitioned to a 100% online setting after only two presential classes, requiring adaptations to the learning experience, course materials and class dynamics. There were concerns that the learning experience would suffer and if it would be possible to promote empathy in an online environment. This study evaluates the impact of this disruption on the learning experience, student performance and engagement by comparing the final grades, applying two surveys and conducting in-depth interviews. Our results show that instead of a contingency situation, it turned out to be a transformative experience. Learning performance and engagement were not meaningfully affected, as students were just as able to commit to their innovation projects and produce quality outcomes. We propose that blended learning experiences will leverage the best of both online and presential worlds in the future after COVID-19 and offer specific suggestions drawn from the collected data. The results are valuable for lecturers – from any course – who want to improve their learning experience in the new reality after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the contemporary landscape of education, integrating Project-Based Learning (PjBL) within online educational environments has emerged as a prominent pedagogical approach, aiming to foster students' critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. This study seeks to evaluate students' experiences with Project-Based Learning in the context of online education, recognizing the significance of understanding the effectiveness and challenges associated with this instructional method. The primary aim of this research is to assess the perceptions and experiences of students engaging in Project-Based Learning within online educational settings. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to capture students' perspectives comprehensively. The study sample comprised students enrolled in diverse online courses across various disciplines, ensuring a broad representation of experiences and insights. The study's main results reveal a nuanced understanding of students' experiences with Project-Based Learning in online educational contexts. Quantitative analysis indicates overall positive perceptions regarding the effectiveness of PjBL in enhancing learning outcomes and fostering student engagement. Qualitative findings further elucidate the multifaceted nature of students' experiences, highlighting both the benefits and challenges of implementing PjBL in online settings. In conclusion, this research underscores the potential of Project-Based Learning as a valuable instructional approach within online education, offering opportunities for meaningful learning experiences and skill development. However, it also identifies several considerations and areas for improvement, such as adequate technological support, clear guidelines, and enhanced facilitation to optimize the PjBL experience in online environments. This study contributes to the field of education by providing empirical insights into implementing Project-Based Learning in online educational contexts. The findings offer valuable implications for educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers seeking to effectively integrate innovative pedagogical approaches into online learning environments, ultimately enhancing the quality and efficacy of online education.