E-Lerning
M. Farazkish; Gh. Montazer
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The current generation of academic learners is considered "digital natives" because of their ease of use and familiarity with networking technologies; However, there are ambiguities about the readiness of students to study in an e-learning environment. In particular, Iranian ...
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Background and Objectives: The current generation of academic learners is considered "digital natives" because of their ease of use and familiarity with networking technologies; However, there are ambiguities about the readiness of students to study in an e-learning environment. In particular, Iranian students' lack of motivation for e-learning, despite much infrastructure investment over the past two decades, has been a major challenge that has recently attracted the attention of higher education planners to e-learning readiness, especially from a perceptual perspective. This study investigated the perceptual readiness level of Iranian students for e-learning. Therefore, the current state of perceptual readiness of Iranian students to participate in the e-learning environment beyond the presumption of "existence" or "lack" of this preparation is such that their actual readiness is determined in a number of important universities. Methods: This research is philosophically placed in the positivism paradigm and the logic of deductive reasoning is used. Its macro-targeting is applied, and the survey research strategy is used to collect first-hand data using a questionnaire tool. The survey data were collected between April 2018 and February 2019. In addition, two complementary approaches have been used to formulate and weigh the indicators and criteria for assessing students' e-learning readiness: first, the use of indicators and criteria developed in previous research, and second, and the use of subject matter experts in the country. The use of data from other researches makes it possible to compare the results with the findings of other researchers, and the use of expert opinion causes the localization of indicators and criteria with the requirements and context of higher education in the country. The students' perceptual readiness was measured by the following four scales: Attitude, Perceived usefulness, Willingness and Perceived self-efficacy; Then, the weight of each scale and measure will be calculated. Finally, based on the rating results, the students' perceptual readiness at the number of comprehensive universities and specialized universities will be estimated. Findings: The average perceptual readiness of students for e-learning in 15 selected Iranian universities is 4.9 out of 10, which indicates the situation at the "average" level. Also, the findings show that about 35% of the students' readiness measures are below the "good" level, and the average of all readiness measures is at the "medium" level. Also, considering students' relative perceptual readiness for e-learning, especially in "perceived self-efficacy" and "attitudes" scales, the deans of universities should focus on the two main activities of "enhancing students' self-efficacy through e-learning" and "providing an appropriate e-learning environment”. Conclusion: Considering the decrease in the number of e-learning Iranian students, the results of this study show that one of the important reasons for the failure of e-learning systems in Iranian universities can be students' lack of perceptual readiness. At the same time, considering the lower than average level of students' readiness in the "willingness" and "perceived usefulness" scales, there is a need to focus on awareness and education of students in this regard. Besides, relying on students 'relative readiness to understand self-efficacy and attitude indicators, universities should put two main activities on their agenda: 1) further strengthening students' self-efficacy through e-learning, and 2) providing a suitable environment. For e-learning for students.
E-Lerning
F. Zarrin; Gh. Montazer
Abstract
Background and Objective:One of the features used to personalize the e-learning environment is self-efficacy. This feature refers to people's belief in their ability to do tasks. Experts believe that academic self-efficacy is one of the important factors that has a positive effect on effective learning ...
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Background and Objective:One of the features used to personalize the e-learning environment is self-efficacy. This feature refers to people's belief in their ability to do tasks. Experts believe that academic self-efficacy is one of the important factors that has a positive effect on effective learning and academic achievement of learners. The concept Self-efficacy began with the work of Albert Bandura. According to Bandura, self-efficacy is a person's beliefs or judgments about his or her ability to perform tasks and responsibilities. This concept is not about having a skill or ability, but about believing in the ability to do work in different situations. The purpose of this article is to design an intelligent tutoring system. The learning model of the proposed system includes features of academic self-efficacy and learning style. Methods:Academic self-efficacy has been automatically identified by designing of a fuzzy system based on learners' behavior and learning style through the questionnaire of Felder-Silverman which contains 44 question. After identification of these features, Proportional education strategies are presented and implemented in tutoring system in a real environment. The effectiveness of the proposed tutoring system is evaluated in terms of learners' operation by investigation of their satisfaction from system. Findings: The results show that considering functional characteristics in learning model, presenting some learning objects and proportional recommendations to the characteristics, results in 75% learners' educational progress and their educational satisfaction. Moreover, evaluation of the time passed in the e-Learning environment before and after using Perles does not show a significant difference. Results show that the designed intelligent tutoring system based on the learner model and educational strategies, has led not only to the educational success of the learners but also to increase in their enthusiasm in using the system. Considering other effective and cognitive features in learning is highly recommended in order to provide a personalized environment. Conclusion:The purpose of this study was to personalize the e-learning environment. For this purpose, the characteristics of academic self-efficacy and learning style, which are two effective characteristics in learning, were selected to model learners in a networked environment. Learning style was obtained through a questionnaire and an attempt was made to identify academic self-efficacy indirectly by using learner behaviors in the e-learning environment. To do this, the self-efficacy identification system was designed and evaluated using fuzzy set theory. Comparison of the output results of the identifier system with the academic self-efficacy questionnaire shows that the accuracy of the system is 88.2%. This indicates that the learner's behaviors in the e-learning environment can be an acceptable indicator of his/her academic self-efficacy and these behaviors can be considered as a basis for identifying academic self-efficacy. It is suggested that in future research, other effective features in education such as cognitive style, emotion, and personality be considered in order to provide a personalized environment for learners.
Electronic learning- virtual
A. Asadi; G.H. Montazer
Abstract
Abstract: To meet the increasing demand for higher education, universities are questing for new ways of delivering education and as a result, e-learning is being implemented more frequently each day, creating new opportunities for both educational institutions and students. Likewise, every online organization, ...
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Abstract: To meet the increasing demand for higher education, universities are questing for new ways of delivering education and as a result, e-learning is being implemented more frequently each day, creating new opportunities for both educational institutions and students. Likewise, every online organization, the website of an educational institution is the first interaction tool between the user and the organization and plays an important role in establishing long term relationships with students. To face this strategic issue for virtual universities, this paper focuses on improving website quality based on users’ information and structural needs. By considering that the basic goal of every website is to provide the user with information, first, proper content for a university website from the users’ perspective will be selected, and then a framework for Iranian universities’ websites will be proposed. Selecting proper content items from a website is a selection problem with different criteria influencing the optimal solution. Therefore, in this paper, multicriteria decision making approach is taken toward this selection problem.
Electronic learning- virtual
Gh. Montazer; A. Moosavi
Abstract
Focusing on quality and expansion of skill education to train creative and skill ful human resources has had a significant increase over the last years. In this regard، creating E-Training centers is among issues that should be carefully considered by training authorities. In this paper، evaluating ...
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Focusing on quality and expansion of skill education to train creative and skill ful human resources has had a significant increase over the last years. In this regard، creating E-Training centers is among issues that should be carefully considered by training authorities. In this paper، evaluating different models for E-readiness، relying on comparative studies، and analyzing data obtained from national studies، a comprehensive conceptual framework has been designed to study e-training readiness in the country. The achieved model includes three main dimensions: “hard infrastructure readiness”، “soft provisions readiness”، “supervision، and arrangements readiness”، as well as fifteen indexes which offer a comprehensive model to the countries training system and define its position in the development of mass scaled E-learning.
Electronic learning- virtual
N. Saberi; Gh.A. Montazer
Abstract
Environmental monitoring for extraction of learner’s features and accurately learner modeling is a time and cost consuming task. This paper proposes a flexible framework using agent architecture capabilities in learners’ monitoring and also in optimization of Intelligent Tutoring subsystems ...
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Environmental monitoring for extraction of learner’s features and accurately learner modeling is a time and cost consuming task. This paper proposes a flexible framework using agent architecture capabilities in learners’ monitoring and also in optimization of Intelligent Tutoring subsystems interactions. In this research learner’s learning approaches have been recognized by learning style theory then their uncertainty has been reduced by Bayesian Network. This framework prepares recommendations by combination of learners’ learning style and learner’s abilities (that are computed by Item Response Theory (IRT)) for three groups: learners, tutors and system designer. The architecture of proposed tutoring system has been presented in three layers. In middle layer there are four agents that monitor learners, create learner’s model, update it and prepare some recommendations based on courseware features, learner’s abilities and his/her learning style. A study was conducted on 30 Computer Engineering students during one semester. The implementation of the proposed system on participants indicates an increase in all evaluation factors, for example it doubles educational success rate and learner’s satisfaction rate.
Education technology - Evaluation and testing
Gh. Montazer; B. Darab
Abstract
Information technologies have reshaped the interactions and creation of knowledge, and affected significantly the processes of acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in the society. The universities and educational institutions, as the main sources of production and communication of science, are ...
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Information technologies have reshaped the interactions and creation of knowledge, and affected significantly the processes of acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in the society. The universities and educational institutions, as the main sources of production and communication of science, are to be gradually modified. There, the subject on which the higher education administrators should seriously concentrate is establishing the virtual universities and realizing e-learning there. This realization requires fulfilling the condition of different aspects, systemically called e-readiness. Tarbiat Modares University is of the ones who attempted, in recent years, to present master programs in different faculties via electronic media. in the first part of the paper, it is attempted to present an appropriate model for assessing its e-learning readiness based on the comparative studies as well as national experts’ views. Then a comprehensive analysis of e-Learning readiness experienced in Tabrbiat Modares University is presented here. It is noticeable that the proposed model is based on the specifications and localized features of the country and has the adaptability for application in assessment of e- learning readiness in other universities.
