Dossier: "The virtual environment student"

Containerization: Practical infrastructure and accessibility efficiency for the Virtual Learning Environment 
 Context and motivation:
 Containers are transforming modern application infrastructure, providing advantages for accessibility and allow many instances of existing legacy applications to be run at the same time on the latest operating systems. This can implement an ideal virtual learning environment which offers a dynamic learning space where instructors upload activities and resources to enhance learning. The goal is to provide a structured learning environment suited to both the student and the instructor, where materials are easily accessed, and that many files can be transferred at one time. The system should cope with the demands of many students occupying the same virtual learning space, providing each student with individual learning experiences. There are challenges when instructors attempt to adapt the learning environment to meet the learning objectives. Technology barriers to the education provider, primarily in the form of high cost of technology infrastructure requirements need to be overcome before widespread adoption of a virtual learning environment is seen. The potential to overcome these barriers through the application of containerisation provides the motivation behind this presentation (Katz & Council of Independent, 2016; Puvaneswary & Siew Hwa, 2019).
 
 What will be demonstrated in this presentation?
 The use of containers provides the ability to supply many instances of the same application running on a single machine. Each instance is isolated, along with any associated dependencies, allowing efficient utilisation of system resources, such as processing and memory. The presentation will demonstrate how many instances of the same application can be activated and the resource advantages gained. The presentation will show a system that has been used to provide a complex structured virtual learning environment to level 7 students and discuss how the system was utilised to provide a positive, individualised learning experience to the students. Security and confidentiality is maintained within each containerized instance. The presentation will show how the system can be configured to be self-healing, respond to scheduling, and to automatically restart single instances as required.
 
 The implications for future practice
 The presentation will show how the advantages of containerization can be integrated at many levels of the virtual learning environment, providing many separate and individual instances of the same application. The number of instances can be easily adjusted as required, and resources are automatically allocated, reducing support overhead and cost of infrastructure. The implications are that each instance can provide a unique experience to each student, whilst reducing the workload of the instructor, and minimizing the cost to the education provider.
 
 
 References
 Katz, P. M., & Council of Independent, C. (2016). High-Tech or High-Touch? Online Learning and Independent Higher Education. Innovations in Teaching and Learning. Research Brief 5: Council of Independent Colleges. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED569215&site=eds-live
 Puvaneswary, M., & Siew Hwa, Y. (2019). Navigating the Shortcomings of Virtual Learning Environments Via Social Media. International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments (IJVPLE), 9(2), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJVPLE.2019070101
 

This article presents a case study, Online Geography, carried out at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the basic feature of which was to implement a Learning Management System for university teaching. This experience resulted in the incorporation of curricular improvements which could be considered compatible with the processes of European convergence inherent in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The most significant results of the case analysed here refer to changes in the teaching approach which translate into an improved organisation of content and the implementation of different pedagogical resources to those used in regular teaching, promoting new roles for both the teaching staff and students. Although these improvements do not exploit all of the possibilities offered by virtual teaching and learning environments, they are a first step towards a change of vision with regard to university teaching at the UAB, which will require the support of more defined policies for both resource investment and training and incentives for teaching staff.

One of the instructional methods, which is favored by students and which could arguably provide high quality educational opportunities, is faculty presence, as it makes possible the interaction between instructor and students and between students and students in a virtual learning environment. Online instructors and academic administrators in higher education cannot simply hold an assumption that quality online courses or student learning could largely depend upon good internet connectivity, high quality equipment, solid content knowledge of instructors, and beautifully designed online courses. The presence of an online instructor cannot ever be neglected or marginalized in online students' learning success. Therefore, it is highly significant to address the roles that instructors play in an online learning environment in order to underscore the crucial importance of faculty presence in the success of student learning.

As the Covid 19 Pandemic greatly impacted teaching and learning, academic institutions switched from in-person to online classes. This shift prompted an examination of students’ learning styles to accommodate their learning in virtual environment. The VARK (Visual-Aural-Read/Write-Kinesthetic) instrument was used to assess effectiveness of teaching and students’ learning in U.S. Coast Guard Academy (CGA) undergraduate engineering course. The VARK instrument was used to facilitate effective virtual classroom activities to engineering students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper argues that students have different learning strengths and styles. Some students may learn best by watching and listening, others by thinking, and others by doing or by doing, touching, and feeling. Our results indicate that engineering students demonstrate a strong preference for at least two learning styles and the learning styles differ between male and female students. Females are not kinesthetic learners, but their preferable mode of learning is verbal or reading. Male students preferred aural style and African Americans kinesthetic learning style. This research was conducted to improve our teaching and provide students with safe learning environment during challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper finds that learning styles are important across all majors during virtual learning and teaching. The VARK instrument can be used to indicate cadets’ learning styles to facilitate effective learning and teaching in virtual environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An analysis of students' preparation for the virtual learning environment

The development of online and virtual teaching and learning environments to augment formal face-to-face environments raises questions about the way the new communication and information technologies (CITs) are being incorporated into the on-campus environment. More importantly, this development challenges the meaning of the on-campus student learning experience. The new CITs require institutions, teachers and researchers to reconsider the relationship of the physical setting to the student learning experience. This paper highlights examples of recent developments of new learning environments which have been enhanced by the contribution of educational developers at several Australian universities. It also proposes a set of pedagogically informed principles to guide the development of on-campus teaching and learning environments which may feature the use of CITs.

Readiness is an important indicator of learners' willingness to engage productively in a virtual learning environment. Low readiness is believed to be the main reason behind virtual learning failure. The purpose of this present study is to investigate the effects of online readiness on learners’ learning satisfaction and performance in a virtual second language learning environment on a sample of 203 Malaysian Non-Arabic Speaking Learners using a cross-sectional survey. This study further explored which dimension of readiness is found to be the strongest predictor of their level of satisfaction and performance. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis examined the predictive relationships between readiness, satisfaction, and performance. The results proved that online readiness was statistically a significant predictor of their learning satisfaction and performance, indicating computer and internet self-efficacy in performing activities in the virtual learning environment as the strongest predictor. By identifying the most influential predictors, this groundbreaking study recognizes which key elements of the virtual learning environment language learners would need more to relish learning and achieve their goals. This study offers critical insights that have not been previously explored by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the factors influencing learning satisfaction and performance. The findings, therefore, highlight the paramount importance of assessing the readiness of online learners and their learning environment, providing valuable guidance for higher education institutions seeking to enhance the success of VLLE. In addition, this study sets a precedent for future research in the field. It underscores the need for ongoing efforts to improve virtual language learning environments to serve students’ needs better.

For many educational leaders, the move to an online (virtual) teaching and learning environment which requires different ways of engaging from a traditional daily in person leadership approach can be daunting. The research reported in this article explored how I, an education leader who had previously enjoyed traditional face to face leadership roles, could move into an online teaching and learning environment and maintain the relational leadership approach I had strived to enact in face-to-face settings. Through an autoethnographic framework, journaling and critical reflective process, the research data captured the personal and professional characteristics and attributes that influenced my leadership practice. These characteristics were explored through the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; 2005), and the philosophical framework of the Whatu metaphor (Hiha, 2015), strengthening the understanding that the personal and professional characteristics identified within my leadership practice had been shaped and influenced by my early life and formative experiences. The findings from the research offer a unique contribution to the limited research demonstrating how education leaders can enact agency of their leadership through self-awareness in an online teaching and learning environment.

"El perfil de l’estudiant d’una universitat a distància ha sigut històricament el d’una persona incorporada al món laboral que nopot assistir a les classes, o el d’una persona que resideix en una zona on no hi ha possibilitat de cursar els estudis en formatpresencial. Actualment, les universitats presencials també estan oferint assignatures en línia, siga íntegrament en entorns virtuals,o amb sistemes mixtos o semipresencials. Açò últim, unit al gran desenvolupament tecnològic i la popularització d’internet, haprovocat que nous perfils d’estudiants apareguen en la formació en línia.Les motivacions, el temps disponible i la manera de treballar de cadascun d’estos perfils és ben diferent. De la mateixamanera, es poden detectar diferències entre els estudiants de disciplines relacionades amb les Ciències Socials i de titulacionstècniques. Els campus virtuals, que en un principi van ser dissenyats des del punt de vista de la tecnologia, han de tenir encompte els perfils dels estudiants que els utilitzaran.Ací intentarem desgranar les motivacions, els interessos, les problemàtiques i les preferències dels estudiants en línia d’Enginyeria,i intentarem esbrinar quines eines tecnològiques i quines accions docents seran les més adequades per al normaldesenvolupament de l’aprenentatge."

While virtual learning environments (VLEs) are widely used in K-12 education for classroom instruction and self-study, young students’ success in VLEs highly depends on their self-regulated learning (SRL) skills. Therefore, it is important to provide personalized support for SRL. One important precursor of designing personalized SRL support is to understand students’ SRL behavioral patterns. Extensive studies have clustered SRL behaviors and prescribed personalized support for each cluster. However, limited attention has been paid to the algorithm bias and fairness of clustering results. In this study, we “fairly” clustered the behavioral patterns of SRL using fair-capacitated clustering (FCC), an algorithm that incorporates constraints to ensure fairness in the assignment of data points. We used data from 14,251 secondary school learners in a virtual math learning environment. The results of FCC showed that it could capture six clusters of SRL behaviors in a fair way; three clusters belonging to high-performing (i.e., H-1. Help-provider, H-2) Active SRL learner, H-3) Active onlooker), and three clusters in low-performing groups (i.e., L-1) Quiz-taker, L-2) Dormant learner, and L-3) Inactive onlooker). The findings provide a better understanding of SRL patterns in online learning and can potentially guide the design of personalized support for SRL.

RESUMOEste artigo apresenta uma análise de produções discursivas de licenciandos em Letras - Português de um curso de Graduação na modalidade EaD, de uma universidade pública federal do sul do Brasil, no que se refere às suas concepções de linguagem.A fundamentação teórico-metodológica baseia-se nos estudos do Círculo de Bakhtin. Os dados da pesquisa compõem-se de 106 fóruns de discussão; 59 enunciados de atividades avaliativas, postados no ambiente virtual de ensino e aprendizagem no período de 2007 a 2011; e dados gerados por meio de um questionário, respondido por 61 licenciandos nos seus respectivos polos de apoio de ensino presencial. No tocante às concepções de linguagem discursivizadas pelos sujeitos da pesquisa, os dados apontam para: a) a reenunciação de uma concepção de linguagem que concebe a língua como única/homogênea; b) a reenunciação da noção de variação linguística; e c) a ausência discursiva no que se refere à concepção de linguagem como interação. Esses resultados demonstram um descompasso entre a formação docente inicial e o que se espera em termos de formação de professores previsto pelos documentos oficiais de ensino, nos quais o trabalho com as práticas de escuta, leitura e produção textual estão assentadas em uma concepção interacionista da linguagem.

Este artigo apresenta uma análise de enunciados de licenciandos em Letras de um curso de Licenciatura Letras-Português-EaD de uma universidade pública federal do sul do Brasil no que se refere às concepções de conteúdos de ensino e aprendizagem na disciplina de língua portuguesa. A fundamentação teórico-metodológica insere-se na Análise Dialógica do Discurso do Círculo de Bakhtin. Os dados da pesquisa compõem-se de: 106 fóruns de discussão; 59 enunciados de atividades avaliativas, postados no ambiente virtual de ensino e aprendizagem no período de 2007 a 2011; e dados gerados por meio de um questionário, respondido por 61 licenciandos nos seus respectivos polos de apoio de ensino presencial. A análise aponta para um embate entre o discurso da tradição no ensino de língua portuguesa e o discurso da mudança.

One of the practical problems posed by the increasing use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) and learning management systems (LMSs) is the need to create a cohesive learning community among students who access online courses. This article describes an online language course whose main aim was to develop a learning community in which participants felt confident enough to share their work with others, and to offer and receive comments on their assignments. The course was designed for students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) at a university in Korea. The main features of the course were that students were encouraged to collaborate in pair and group discussions, and to post their work in the VLE so that others could read and comment on it. Data was gathered from the students’ journals, their assignments, feedback and comments posted on the web board, and e-mails to the instructor. The results showed that, in the process of completing the course, the majority of the students reported a strong sense of ‘belonging’ to a learning community, developing a close rapport with other students by sharing their work, exchanging comments and taking part in discussions. The students felt proud of their work as well as of the process of working together with others. The results suggest that opportunities for social interaction and feedback play a crucial role in developing the emotional connection which helps to create a collaborative learning environment and support an effective learning community.

For the last few decades, there was tremendous interest in harnessing 3D virtual environments for education and training. Multi-user game-like environments make use of non-player characters and quest activities in tutoring and training. This approach incorporates successful active learning and incremental progress. This article presents issues encountered while adapting the multi-user online game genre for educational virtual environments. In this endeavour, non-player characters play a central role in organising and delivering educational content. Educational virtual environments call for additional kinds of extension beyond generic user content creation as delivered in some virtual worlds like Second Life. Support for these environments will emphasise the creation of new activities. A set of libraries and techniques named portable non-player character tutors and quests reduces the effort needed to develop and integrate educational non-player characters. These non-player characters are introduced in CVE, a platform for rapidly developing educational virtual environments. The portable non-player character tutors and quests framework enables formatted web-based exercises, quizzes, and educational content to be incorporated into virtual worlds, reducing the effort needed to create new content. The framework presented in this article introduces initial non-player characters that support educational quest activities to the 3D environments users.

In this paper, the differences in academic motivation between university students of traditional (in-classroom) and online (distance) education were investigated. It has been hypothesized that online (distance) students possess stronger intrinsic motivation than traditional (in-classroom) students. The random sample consisted of 386 students. Participants comprised 189 male and 197 female students; 194 of them were traditional students, and 192 of them were online students. The cross-sectional research design was used in this study. A 21 item Academic Motivation Scale (SAMS-21) was used to measure three types of extrinsic motivation (intrinsic motivation to know, to accomplish things, and to experience stimulation), three types of extrinsic motivation (external, introjected, and identified regulation) and amotivation in university students. The findings indicated that students' intrinsic motivation scores were higher in online students than in students who attend traditional face-to-face classes. The results did not reveal significant differences between male and female students in terms of academic motivation. This study made a novel contribution to the literature, because the present study has compared academic motivation between university students of traditional and online education in a new context. i.e. before COVID-19 pandemic and during it. Recommendations are provided for further research into areas not covered by this study.