Empirical Study Archives - EduTec Science

Sep262023 by Daniel BiedermannNo Comments

New publication: Use of digital self-control tools in higher education

Empirical Study, Higher Education, Open access, Publication, Research topic, Self-Regulation, Target group

Digital Self-Control Tools in Higher Education: A Dive into Effectiveness and Perception While the accessibility to information and the myriad of online learning resources offer a wealth of benefits, the potential for distraction can hinder academic progress. Addressing this paradox, our educational technologies research group has delved into the realm of digital self-control tools (DSCTs) to better understand their utilization, effectiveness, and perception among higher education students. Our findings have been published in the article "Use of digital self-control tools in higher education – a survey study" in the journal "Education and Information Technologies". A widespread issue among students today is the struggle between immediate gratification and the pursuit of long-term academic goals. Distractions such as social media browsing and video watching can often compete with essential study time. The…

Aug72023 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: How well does teacher education prepare for teaching with technology?

Competence development, Digitalisation, Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, Open access, Publication

Despite large-scale investments into the technological infrastructure of K-12 education, research has repeatedly shown that many teachers lack the expertise to effectively incorporate technology into classroom teaching. To support teachers in this, there is a need to understand how and when the relevant knowledge develops during teacher training. To this end, Joshua Weidlich and Marco Kalz conducted a study at Heidelberg University of Education, sampling prospective teachers (N = 526) and analyzing their self-reported technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) across the seven dimensions of the framework. Specifically, they assessed (1) the extent to which students more advanced in their studies reported higher TPACK, (2) the effect of gender on these trajectories, and (3) the potential role of curricular cornerstones of the teacher education program. Regarding (1), they found that not…

Oct312022 by Prof. Dr. Hendrik DrachslerNo Comments

New Pub: Untangling connections between challenges in the adoption of learning analytics in higher education

Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, Learning Analytics, Publication

[caption id="attachment_4599" align="alignnone" width="967"] Associations of challenges and ethics: (a) none, (b) prep-partial, and (c) full adoption institutions[/caption] Potential benefits of learning analytics (LA) for improving students' performance, predicting students' success, and enhancing teaching and learning practice have increasingly been recognized in higher education. However, the adoption of LA in higher education institutions (HEIs) to date remains sporadic and predominantly small in scale due to several socio-technical challenges. To better understand why HEIs struggle to scale LA adoption, it is needed to untangle adoption challenges and their related factors. This paper presents the findings of a study that sought to investigate the associations of adoption factors with challenges HEIs face in the adoption of LA and how these associations are compared among HEIs at different scopes of adoption. The study…

Jul272022 by Atezaz AhmadNo Comments

New Pub: Connecting the dots – A literature review on learning analytics indicators from a learning design perspective

Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, Learning Analytics, Learning Design, Lifelong Learning, Literature review, Open access, Publication, Self-Regulation, Special Issue, Target group

[caption id="attachment_4329" align="alignright" width="450"] Occurrences of the most commonly used learning analytic indicators over the past 10 years[/caption] Background: During the past decade, the increasingly heterogeneous field of learning analytics has been critiqued for an over-emphasis on data-driven approaches at the expense of paying attention to learning designs. Method and objective: In response to this critique, we investigated the role of learning design in learning analytics through a systematic literature review. 161 learning analytics (LA) articles were examined to identify indicators that were based on learning design events and their associated metrics. Through this research, we address two objectives. First, to achieve a better alignment between learning design and learning analytics by proposing a reference framework, where we present possible connections between learning analytics and learning design. Second, to present how…

Jun172022 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Extending Social Presence Theory

Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, Learning Design, Publication

In the area of online learning and distance education, social presence is considered a key concept to understand interpersonal processes that are mediated by technology. At the same time, theory surrounding social presence remains underdeveloped. For example, under which conditions is social presence particularly important? Do students always need high perceptions of social presence in their learning experiences? A strong theory should provide tentative answers to questions like these. Yet, as of now, our knowledge is mostly restricted to correlations coefficients between measures of social presence and outcome variables like satisfaction. Without further nuance, learning designers do not know under which circumstances they should prioritize designing for interpersonal aspects or instead focus on other aspects. To advance a more nuanced understanding of social presence, Joshua Weidlich, Derya Göksün, and Karel…

Mar152022 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Measuring Productivity in CSCL groups

Assessment, Conference, Empirical Study, Higher Education, Learning Design, Publication

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is a common pedagogical approach, in which groups of students work together digitally to engage in learning activities, solve problems, or create a shared artefact. CSCL is further interesting from a research standpoint, because different disciplines want to understand the processes and circumstances from which productive social interaction in online groups emerge to facilitate learning among group members. As such, group productivity is a central outcome to be considered in CSCL research. At the same time, the current literature does not provide a valid and reliable self-report instrument to measure group productivity. [caption id="attachment_3914" align="alignleft" width="325"] Wright Map[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3915" align="alignleft" width="323"] Category probability curves with six (top) versus 5 (bottom) rating scale steps[/caption] …

Feb282022 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

New Pub: Are the World Health Organization’s Patient Safety Learning Objectives Still Up-to-Date

Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, medical education, Open access, Publication

Ten-cluster map labeled with an MDS point map.In this article published in the Journal of Patient Safety the authors Lina Vogt, Slavi Stoyanov, Jochen Bergs, Hanna Schröder, Hendrik Drachsler, Martin Klasen and Saša Sopka investigate whether the overall topics and the specific learning objectives of the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide are still applicable. They also examine what importance is attached to these and how difficult they are to achieve. Background The World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety Curriculum Guide defines learning objectives for patient safety. Current implementation in healthcare education is insufficient. Possible explanations may be obsolescence and/or a shift in needs. We investigated whether overarching topics and specific learning objectives of the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide are still up-to-date, their attributed importance, and their perceived difficulty to…

Feb252022 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Creative students in self-paced learning environments

Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, Learning Design, Publication

Creativity is a 21st century skill that is increasingly seen as an important goal of educational systems. At the same time, not enough research has been done on students that are high on trait creativity, i.e. how to accommodate and foster this important individual difference in learning environments. In educational technology in particular, we know next to nothing about how to design learning environments for creative students vs less creative students. While there is a literature from cognitive psychology suggesting that learning environments should be highly structured and guided to avoid disorientation and overload in *all* students, there is an opposing literature stating that students in creative domains (e.g. art & music education) profit from rich and unorganized stimuli. These students flourish in environments that are complex and afford multiple…

Oct232021 by Prof. Dr. Hendrik DrachslerNo Comments

New Pub: Einfluss von Lehr-Einstellungen und digitalen Kompetenzen auf die virtuelle Lehre

Competence development, Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, Open access, Publication

Die Gestaltung und Durchführung virtueller Lehrveranstaltungen wird durch unter schiedliche Lehransätze der Hochschullehrenden sowie durch deren individuellen Kompetenzstand auf dem Feld digitaler (Lehr-)Kompetenzen beeinflusst. Der Bei trag stellt empirische Ergebnisse einer Studie vor, die zeigen, dass insbesondere ein studierendenzentrierter Lehransatz bei Gestaltung virtueller Lehre vorteilhaft ist und der Aufbau digitaler Kompetenzen einen Schlüssel für die gelingende Im plementierung digitaler Bildungsformate darstellt. Abschließend werden mögliche Folgerungen für mediendidaktische Qualifizierungsansätze diskutiert. The design and implementation of virtual courses are influenced by different teaching by different teaching approaches of university lecturers and by their individual level of competence in the field of digital (teaching) skills. This empirical results of a study, which show that in particular, a student-centred a student-centred approach to virtual teaching is particularly advantageous and that the development of digital competencies is a…

Oct182021 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Social Presence: Conceptualization and Measurement

Empirical Study, Journal, Literature review, Publication

Social presence is an important and well-established construct for learning scenarios that make use of online-based technology to mediate learning activities and communication among students. Researchers and practitioners refer to social presence to better understand the socio-emotional dimension of these learning scenarios and/or improve the quality of the experience. However, many researchers in the past have pointed to the shaky foundation that is the conceptualization and measurement of social presence. In other words, there is no agreement on what social presence actually *is* and, consequently, how it should be measured. This makes it difficult to cumulatively build on prior research, possibly explaining the conflicting findings and the rather slow progress this field of research has been making. Our publication in Educational Psychology Review, authored by Karel Kreijns, Kate Xu, and…