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In the ongoing pandemic context, short-term study abroad opportunities remain limited for many students. As a result, there has been a need for universities to develop educational innovations for home context learning to meet institutional intercultural learning aims. The purpose of this action research paper is to outline how a small-scale e-learning innovation was designed based on characteristics of intercultural citizenship education to encourage connections with, and responsibility towards, communities beyond national borders. The innovation involved critical exploration of a student-selected social issue using online texts, and reflections and blogging on the issue from individual, local, national, and international perspectives. A qualitative content analysis of reflections in blogposts of 49 students showed that the majority expressed connections with intercultural citizenship, though a minority rejected international identifications. The paper offers a timely and systematically designed intercultural e-learning innovation, implementable in other contexts, to support intercultural learning in a context of limited study abroad.

E-books have been introduced to educational institutions in many countries. The use of e-books in traditional classrooms enables the recording of learning logs. Recently, researchers have begun to carry out learning analytics on the learning logs of e-books. However, there has been limited attention devoted to understanding the types of learning strategies that students employ when they read e-books. In this paper, using e-book learning logs, we examine the learning strategies that students employed when reading e-books. In this paper, we will introduce how to identify learning strategies from e-book learning logs with two case studies. One is "Identifying Learning Strategies Using Clustering" and the other is "Examining Learning Strategies Using Sequential Analysis."

Reaching a reading goal of 150,000 words in a semester is no easy feat for many language learners. To reach this goal, an extensive reading (ER) program needs to invest in and select a format that can best enable this achievement. This preliminary study compares the use of two different extensive reading (ER) formats that employ two learning management systems to determine which format has a greater impact on the number of words read and how they influence learner and teacher attitudes towards ER. Printed graded readers (PGRs) using MReader and digital graded readers (DGRs) using Xreading were used in an advanced required TOEFL course for first-year students at a large, private university in Japan in the spring semesters of 2019 and 2020, respectively. This paper examines student achievements (N=95) with MReader and Xreading reading logs (number of words read) and attitudes towards ER as revealed in the student survey responses and teacher (N=3) qualitative feedback. The preliminary findings suggest that PGRs may produce higher outcomes in terms of words read. In general, both PGRs and DGRs were received favorably by students and teachers, suggesting that institutions can successfully utilize either system based upon their existing infrastructure needs.

This paper describes the effects of a pairing method based on digital textbook logs and learners' artifacts in conceptual modeling exercises. The authors developed a digital textbook system called Smart E-Textbook Application (SEA) and a conceptual modeling tool called KIfU 3.0 to collect conceptual modeling activity logs in exercises. This study proposes a method that makes pairs of learners for group work by considering the characteristics of the artifacts created by them and digital textbook logs. An initial evaluation was conducted to evaluate the learning effects of the proposed pairing method compared to the random pairing method. From its results, this study found the discussion patterns and digital textbook browsing status in the maximum value of improvement and deterioration points of learners' artifacts in the conceptual modeling.

Recent spread of the COVID-19 forces governments around the world to temporarily close educational institutions. In this paper, we evaluated learning engagement, level of satisfaction and anxiety of e-book based remote teaching strategy on an online learning platform. The research involves 358 students at an urban junior-high school in Japan. Learning logs were analyzed to measure student engagement, whereas survey responses indicated their perception regarding the remote learning experience. Log analysis revealed that the average completion rate over 267 learning materials was 67%. We also observed a significant decrease in engagement 3 weeks after remote learning and different subjects and grades. Survey analysis showed students felt both satisfaction and anxiety about remote learning. However, there were significant differences in the level of satisfaction between different grades. The results indicated that: (1) maintaining students' motivation is a challenge to remote learning in secondary schools; and (2) we need to relieve students' anxiety about their own progress in the class and their classes after the break. This study is the first to report trends in actual teaching--learning engagement, which were recorded during sessions of emergency remote teaching in Japanese schools. The results can inform the future implementation of remote learning in junior-high schools.

Task-based language learning (TBLL) has heavily influenced syllabus design, classroom teaching, and learner assessment in a foreign or second language teaching context. In this English as foreign language (EFL) learning environment, the paper discussed an innovative language learning pedagogy based on design education and technical writing. In this TBLL course, the language learning based assignments centered on designing and analyzing objects using various computer-aided design software and physical LEGO toolkit. The design software was used collaboratively and the design analysis was done mostly as group activities. The language production activities centered on technical document authoring, using collaborative online authoring tools for website hosting and note-taking for design projects, besides oral in-class presentations, and online posting in English. Language reception activities such as readings related to the course lectures, videos, assignment, and assessment instructions were hosted and linked from Moodle--the learning management system. This paper critically analyzed student performance with physical LEGO design and CAD software, including how student groups authored websites detailing the structural and functional specifications related to the product assembly procedure. This paper outlined how design pedagogy could be included in the curriculum while teaching English as a foreign language. In the process, students not only learnt about design fundamentals, but how to author complex technical documents in English. Findings based on course data and class interactions have adequately demonstrated that students were capable of handling the task-based language projects with reasonable efficiency and confidence.

According to Swain, Kinnear, & Steinman (2011), we use a language with others as a form of shared cognition, and in the process we scaffold each other. This action research investigates how students' online written output affects each other's writing. One thousand twenty online entries written by 21 Japanese university sophomore English majors were collected and analysed, specifically focusing on changes in two linguistic features: subject-verb agreement, L1 use and variant L1 spelling in L2 writing. First, all 21 students accessed a specific Social Network Service (SNS). For two months, each student took turns offering a discussion topic with a minimum of 150 words, and the rest of the class members commented online with a minimum of 20 words. The task resulted in 54 topic strands. Each student was tracked to see if his/her language use reflected the output of others. Then the linguistic developmental patterns were further investigated in a post-treatment interview. It was discovered that students lacking confidence in English learning are less likely to imitate and internalize from others. The study suggests that, in addition to scaffolding provided by peers, positively affecting the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is closely related to affective domains that give rise to particular identity formation. This paper therefore argues that the extent of languaging is significantly influenced by affective factors.

Evidence-based education has become more relevant in the current technology-enhanced teaching-learning era. This paper introduces how Educational BIG data has the potential to generate such evidence. As evidence-based education traditionally hooks on the meta-analysis of the literature, so there are existing platforms that support manual input of evidence as structured information. However, such platforms often focus on researchers as end-users and its design is not aligned to the practitioners' workflow. In our work, we propose a technology-mediated process of capturing teaching-learning cases (TLCs) using a learning analytics framework. Each case is primarily a single data point regarding the result of an intervention and multiple such cases would generate an evidence of intervention effectiveness. To capture TLCs in our current context, our system automatically conducts statistical modelling of learning logs captured from Learning Management Systems (LMS) and an e-book reader. Indicators from those learning logs are evaluated by the Linear Mixed Effects model to compute whether an intervention had a positive learning effect. We present two case studies to illustrate our approach of extracting case effectiveness from two different learning contexts -- one at a junior-high math class where email messages were sent as intervention and another in a blended learning context in a higher education physics class where an active learning strategy was implemented. Our novelty lies in the proposed automated approach of data aggregation, analysis, and case storing using a Learning Analytics framework for supporting evidence-based practice more accessible for practitioners.

Vocabulary is an area that requires foreign language learners to work independently and continuously both in and out of class. In the Japanese EFL setting, for example, more than 97% of the population experiences approximately six years of English education at secondary school during which time they are required to learn approximately 3,000 words (i.e., lemmas). Given the lexical distance between Japanese and English, this leaves Japanese university EFL learners with a long way to go before they can acquire a sufficient number of words to comprehend authentic texts in English. To help Japanese university EFL learners sustain their vocabulary learning, the researchers have developed "Lexinote," an e-portfolio system that allows learners to record and save the target words they encounter online, to search for them in online dictionaries, to practice them in several ways including written and oral rehearsals according to word familiarity (i.e., level of understanding of each lexical item), and to share their own output with peers. Learners are guided to monitor and control their vocabulary learning metacognitively according to word familiarity. "Lexinote" also provides learners with multimedia materials such as audio lessons for business and academic vocabulary development and online video lectures to prepare for classes conducted in English. Instructors can monitor students' learning records by number of words recorded, by type of practices chosen, and by how frequently they edit their learning records. This paper introduces the key concepts and basic functions of "Lexinote" and discusses how it can benefit learners, instructors, CALL researchers and developers with results from a survey on learners' perceptions.

A Ubiquitous Learning Log (ULL) is defined as a digital record of what a learner has learned in daily life using ubiquitous computing technologies. In this paper, a project which developed a system called SCROLL (System for Capturing and Reusing Of Learning Log) is presented. The aim of developing SCROLL is to help learners record, organize, recall and evaluate ULLs. Using SCROLL, learners can not only receive personalized quizzes and answers to the questions, but also navigate and be aware of their past ULLs supported by augmented reality views. In particular, this paper introduces an approach that helps learners record their learning experiences in daily life from life-log photos with the help of SenseCam. To evaluate the effectiveness of this system, a case study of an undergraduate English course is presented to show how it can be used to facilitate seamless learning.

Learner-generated content (LGC) has always been produced as part of the learning process; however, it often generally goes no further than the teacher. Research has shown that by exposing LGC to a wider audience, students are motivated to produce work of a higher quality. The process of publishing and sharing LGC also helps students develop key 21st century skills. Furthermore, LGC becomes a valuable learning resource for peers as using the resources ensures that the peers are learning within their zone of proximal development (ZPD). This paper describes how blogs have been used to allow students to publish and share LGC. It also outlines how quality-control mechanisms have been used to ensure that any shared LGC is of appropriate, high-quality content.

Seamless learning has been recognized as an effective learning approach across various dimensions including formal and informal learning contexts, individual and social learning, and physical world and cyberspace. With the emergence of seamless learning, the majority of the current research focuses on realizing a seamless learning environment at school or university. However, the utilization of the collected learning logs still remains a challenge yet to be explored. In this study, an e-book with ubiquitous learning system called SCROLL is developed to collect and analyze learning logs in the seamless learning environment. Moreover, this paper presents our analytics in contribution to bridging the learning between e-Book learning and real-life learning. An experiment was conducted to evaluate (1) whether VASCORLL 2.0 (Visualization and Analysis System for Connecting Relationships of Learning Logs) is effective in connecting the words learned through e-Book to those learned from real-life, and (2) which social network centrality is the most effective to enhance learning in the seamless learning environment. Twenty international students participated in the evaluation experiment, and they were able to increase their learning opportunities by using VASCORLL 2.0. Furthermore, the betweenness centrality was found useful in finding central words that bridge e-Book and real-life learning.

This paper examines the use of CMC in both Japanese and English dominated "domains" by Australian learners of Japanese. The natural, social online communication of 12 Australian university students with 18 of their Japanese contacts was collected for a period of up to four years, resulting in a corpus of approximately 2,000 instances of blogs, e-mails, SNS interactions, chat conversations, game profiles, and mobile phone communications. To supplement this data, interviews were conducted to further explore participants' Internet communication and L2 use. These interviews, paired with evidence from the corpus of collected data, are analysed using Sealey and Carter's (2004) social realism framework in order to explore questions of language selection, identity construction and nationality, as well as what it means to be a "foreigner" online. (Contains 5 tables and 3 notes.)

The "Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior" was founded in 1958 by a group of male psychologists, mainly from the northeastern USA and connected with either Harvard or Columbia. Fifty years later about 20% of both editors and authors reside outside this country and almost the same proportion is women. Other changes in the journal include having its own website for more than a decade and now publishing online as well as on paper. A recent connection with PubMed Central of the National Library of Medicine has made possible the completely free electronic presentation of the entire archive of about 3,800 articles. (Contains 5 tables and 3 figures.)

The article presents a letter from the editor of "Serials" concerning the July 2008 issue. The issue features articles from Muir Gray of the NHS National Knowledge Service, who discusses issues regarding peer review and editing standards in medical literature, and Kevin Guthrie of Ithaka, who looks at the future of scholarly communication and compares it to newspaper publishing. There is also a paper that describes the state of scholarly publishing in Japan and a paper examining why libraries lose access to electronic journals.

Purpose: This paper describes the current state of electronic journal usage among Japanese medical researchers, and discusses the subsequent effect on users' decision whether to read articles on paper or on screen; from what types of full text source they obtain the articles. Methods: The names of 2,033 medical researchers affiliated with 80 medical schools in Japan were extracted and the researchers were surveyed. The questionnaire included questions on: 1) demographic features; 2) whether or not the researcher read the paper from print journals or electronic journals, and the search method used to obtain the most recently read articles; 3) the types of methods used to search for articles; 4) awareness and use of "open access" sites. Results: We received 651 responses (32.3%) between February and March 2007 and analyzed them. The major findings were: 1) 70% of the most recently read articles were electronic journal articles; 2) 80% of the electronic journal articles were provided by academic libraries, while 60% of print journal articles were from private subscription journals; 3) search engines were not used, but PubMed was used primarily to search either print or electronic journal articles; 4) in general, open access methods were not recognized by researchers as one possible route for obtaining the articles although PubMed Central constituted about 10% of the most recently read electronic journal articles; 5) no significant differences relating to article usage patterns were observed among age groups, however, large differences were found among fields of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese book publishing market has tended to shrink recently. The present study investigates the timing of structural change using time-trend analysis to test whether online networking has caused the shrinkage of the print book market. The results show that a structural break occurred in 1983 before the rise of the Internet and that electronic publishing has not influenced print book sales significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]