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This paper addresses the meanings given to learning by Polish migrant bloggers. It presents the result of an analysis of ten blogs, written by Poles living abroad. The blogs under analysis were chosen on the basis of random sample. The analysed material was categorised by recurring themes, which included: learning in Poland, language acquisition, formal education, learning about the new culture, discovering the social norms of the host society and seeing immigration as an all-round learning experience. Four types of meanings given by authors were distinguished: migration as learning experience, learning as effort which deserves a reward, learning as a change, and learning as adapting to multiculturalism. The meanings were analysed according to the principles of critical discourse analysis. The paper discusses how the meanings given by authors are linked to a broad socio-cultural context. It analyses also the impact of learning into identity creation processes.

Coronavirus Pandemic has changed the way that people live, interact and communicate with others. Some modifications are transitory, while others seem to be permanent. Seeking for social and human development, many individuals find in educational courses a way to get a better quality of life. During the lockdown periods, reducing human contact, information technology plays an important role to enable the access of books by individuals. Cultural factors at a country level also can expand or decrease the interest in information technologies to access electronic books (e-books). Therefore, considering the lockdown limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper tests the effect of culture on e-book popularity among different countries. First, we observed a significant increase in the popularity of e-books during the lockdown period, which reinforces the potential that information technology has to generate different values for individuals and firms during lockdown restrictions. Large countries, and countries with better levels of information technology tend to search more for e-books during the lockdown. Moreover, masculinity and power distance are two dimensions of culture that seem to be related to the changes in the interest of e-books during pandemics. These results highlight new questions that can be explored in further research.

This paper presents the perceptions of two university professors regarding the use of project based learning (PBL) in teaching a children's literature course. Students enrolled in the class created an original storybook in the form of an e-book as their final project for the course. The data was collected through in-depth interviews with the professors. The interviews with both faculty members led to important findings regarding the benefits of integrating technology and PBL in the course, such as achieving autonomy of learners, collaboration among peers, authenticity of culture integration, and motivation of learners. However, some challenges were observed, mainly the need for more training and time to achieve better results. The paper concludes with some recommendations for future research in areas such as technology use and evaluation of PBL projects.

A growing trend exists for authors to employ a more informal writing style that uses "we" in academic writing to acknowledge one's stance and engagement. However, few studies have compared the ways in which the first-person pronoun "we" is used in the abstracts and conclusions of empirical papers. To address this lacuna in the literature, this study conducted a systematic corpus analysis of the use of "we" in the abstracts and conclusions of 400 articles collected from eight leading electrical and electronic (EE) engineering journals. The abstracts and conclusions were extracted to form two subcorpora, and an integrated framework was applied to analyze and seek to explain how we-clusters and we-collocations were employed. Results revealed whether authors' use of first-person pronouns partially depends on a journal policy. The trend of using "we" showed that a yearly increase occurred in the frequency of "we" in EE journal papers, as well as the existence of three "we-use" types in the article conclusions and abstracts: "exclusive," "inclusive," and "ambiguous." Other possible "we-use" alternatives such as "I" and "other personal pronouns" were used very rarely--if at all--in either section. These findings also suggest that the present tense was used more in article abstracts, but the present perfect tense was the most preferred tense in article conclusions. Both research and pedagogical implications are proffered and critically discussed.

Electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) have been widely used to help learners collect evidence of their learning, reflect on their evaluation, and promote self-directed learning. Through the introduction of an e-portfolio platform in a cluster of lessons in a module in a polytechnic in Singapore, this paper aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the e-portfolio through the learners' perceptions. A cross-sectional design using an online survey was employed with 226 students taking part in this study. There was high internal consistency among the survey items. Exploratory factor analysis suggested a 5-factor structure: (1) perceived usefulness (PU); (2) organisation (ORG); (3) collaboration (COL); (4) evaluation (EVA); and (5) perceived value of learning (PVL). In addition, confirmatory factor analysis verified that the proposed 5-factor solution was a good model fit. The final research instrument comprised 19 items. A further multiple regression analysis showed that all the independent variables, except for evaluation, were positive and significant predictors of learners' PVL. Specifically, the ORG variable was the most influential predictor of PVL. In comparison, the PU variable was a relatively weaker predictor of PVL. The practical implications and further direction for research are discussed in the paper.

Views from a Distance is a series of word clouds rendered from 35 chairs' addresses delivered at CCCC conventions from 1977 to 2011. The digital installation invites explorations of word-level patterns and anomalies within this widely recognized collection of speeches. The installation itself is underpinned with the assumption that distinctive forms of knowledge are mobilized through visualization techniques. (Contains 6 notes.)

Writing is especially considered to be a difficult language skill to master for beginner learners. However, this century offers innovations in language education through Information and Communication Technology tools. For instance, blogging platforms like Tumblr, Blogger, and WordPress can be employed in writing classes. At this point, the present research aimed to investigate the views and preferences of English as a Foreign Language learners after they practiced their writing skills with blogs for eight weeks. The research utilized WordPress blogs, and a group of 28 learners attended the study. These students were supposed to start a blog and write an essay each week on their blogs. The research was designed as a qualitative exploratory case study. To collect the data, semi-structured interviews with ten randomly chosen learners were conducted to understand their views toward blogs and preferences for writing classes at the end of the treatment. The content analysis method was instrumented to analyze the qualitative data inductively; thus, the data was first coded, and themes emerged. Unlike the previous studies in the field, these findings have revealed the learners' views towards their self-confidence, digital literacy, and writing habits, which changed in a positive manner. Besides, it was also understood that the participants made their preferences in favor of blogs rather than paper-based activities.

This paper explores the redesign of a course in "Digital Storytelling" that integrates metaliteracy to advance Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Students from the United States and Prague, Czech Republic are active participants in this fully online global course as they learn to produce digital stories. The metaliteracy framework encourages metacognitive reflection and the active participation in social information environments. A collaborative teaching team from the United States and Europe redesigned this course to integrate metaliteracy into the learning activities and self-assessments. As students learn to become digital storytellers, they self-identify with specific metaliterate learner roles (producer, collaborator, researcher, etc.), assess their learning through four domains of metaliterate learning (affective, behavioural, cognitive, and metacognitive), and lastly reflect on their work in the course through the metaliteracy characteristics (collaborative, open, reflective, civic-minded, etc.). The internationalization of education in this COIL course is enhanced by the novel combination of metaliteracy and digital storytelling.

In this paper, the question is explored of what policies, standards and practices are desirable to ensure that hardware, software and publications in the sciences and associated disciplines are created from the outset to be accessible to people with disabilities. Insight into this question can be obtained by considering the unique accessibility challenges that these materials pose, including complexities of notation, language, and graphical representation. Having analyzed what sets this problem apart from broader issues of accessibility, the advantages and limitations of current international standards are reviewed, and contemporary developments in standards and policies are considered from a strategic perspective. These developments include the establishment of accessibility requirements for e-books and e-readers under the European Accessibility Act, the potential role of process-oriented accessibility standards such as ISO/IEC 30071- 1:2019, and opportunities for enhancing the standards applicable to scientific materials via future revisions of the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The accessibility of scientific and technical content is ultimately supported by several interrelated human rights recognized in international disability rights law, which constitute a foundation for further evaluation and development of policies. It is argued that attaining pervasive accessibility in scientific and technical fields requires an unprecedented level of commitment and collaboration among educators, scientists, content and software producers, regulators, and people with disabilities.

In the mid-1990s with the birth of internet-based web technologies, ePortfolios emerged as a powerful tool in the institution of education. They are positioned within the online activities of courses and programs of universities, which are a subset of internet learning spaces. These interactions are located virtually on the internet and foster the development of various subcultures as demonstrated by graduate students completing their ePortfolio projects as a manifestation of internet culture. This paper reports on an ethnographic study conducted in three iterations of a capstone ePortfolio project course in a fully online post-secondary institution in western Canada. It also presents the interconnectedness of ePortfolios with the four constructs that underpinned my four years of online observation as a doctoral student in my role as a participant-observer of master's students in the final course of their program of studies. The findings based on the rich data collected on the perceived experiences of master's students offer stimulating discussion on the implications for future scholarship and research on ePortfolios as disruptive pedagogy for blended and online learning spaces.

Universities are placing increased attention on providing students with ePortfolios and online teaching platforms to enhance learning and employability. This paper reports on a study which aimed to investigate the views of dietetics students on the usefulness of PebblePad as a learning platform and ePortfolio tool for evidencing graduate competency and enhancing employability. This research was conducted within a multi-component design-based research framework. PebblePad was introduced to the Griffith University Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics four-year degree in 2016 as part of the eDGE project (ePortfolios for Dietetics Graduate Employability). Students enrolled in 1st and 3rd year courses utilising PebblePad in 2016 and 2017 were invited to complete an online survey at the conclusion of each course. Surveys were completed by 116 students (2016 n=50; 2017 n=66). Students perceived that PebblePad could impact on their employability through demonstrating their learning as well as assisting their understanding and competency development as a professional. This was more evident in 3rd year students than 1st year. The aspects of PebblePad perceived as most beneficial for employability were the ability to: 1) collate experiences and assessment; 2) evidence dietetics competencies via 'tagging'; and 3) facilitate reflection. The least beneficial aspects were: 1) usability and navigation of PebblePad; 2) lack of clarity around using PebblePad to evidence employability; and 3) belief that required reflections were excessive. ePortfolios and learning platforms such as PebblePad are perceived by students to be useful for evidencing employability. Potential improvements in assessment design could further enhance their use.

With the transition to online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for identifying effective methods of assessment has become paramount. The methods of traditional summative in-person, paper-and-pencil exams could not be adapted to the online environment. In case of unsupervised (non-proctored) exams it was impossible to ensure students' academic honesty. Some universities have offered remotely supervised (proctored) examinations, which has been a rare exception. The pandemic prompted teachers to innovate their assessment practice and apply formative assessment methods as an alternative to traditional summative assessment. They have started using tasks such as e-portfolios, online learning journals, blogs, online presentations, creative writing, and open-book exams, which present golden opportunities to involve students in the assessment process. This study aims to explore assessment-related experiences of language and communication teachers at higher education institutions (HEIs) during the pandemic. Our mixed-method research combines an international survey administered to university language and communication teachers (N=301) with in-depth interviews with a selection of participants (n=18) of the same background. The results provide valuable insights into the perceptions that university language and communication teachers have of effective assessment methods and pedagogical approaches engaging learners in assessment. The implications of the study advocate a growing trend toward a wider use of learner-centered assessment.

The present paper addresses the attitudes of Saudi students toward using English dictionaries at Albaha University. A sample of 64 English majors in the College of Science and Arts in Almandaq took part in this study. A descriptive quantitative approach was implemented in this study. A 24-item questionnaire was applied in this study to collect the data. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS. Findings revealed that while most of the participants used bilingual dictionaries, few of them used monolingual dictionaries. Also, the findings showed that there was a lack of awareness among the students in using dictionary entries. Furthermore, a majority of students believe in the importance of using dictionaries for language learning. Integrating lexicography in the English course program is the main recommended implication to be taught. Teachers should implement activities related to dictionary skills in their English classes, such as using dictionary entries, including pronunciation, collocation, parts of speech, abbreviations, etc. Finally, students should be trained to use monolingual dictionaries in their language learning. These implications can be used to overcome the students' difficulties in using dictionaries.

Technological advances and the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have forced higher education institutions to be innovative in delivering education in their countries. E- assessment using e-portfolio illustrates the importance of assessment practices that promote constructivist perception, allowing students to create their own learning as active participants through innovative learning and assessment activities. The purpose of this paper was to explore lecturer's understandings on the functionality of e-portfolio as an alternative assessment in an Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL). For this qualitative study, within an interpretative paradigm, interviews were conducted with four lecturers using thematic approach. The findings revealed that e-portfolio is beneficial for assessment in the ODeL as it allows students the opportunity to self-embrace their learning, e-portfolio enhances student-centeredness through authentic assessment practices. However, e-portfolio is not implemented to its potential due to challenges and constraints experienced by lecturers. Based on the findings, it is recommended that training workshops beneficial for lecturers should be conducted at the beginning of the course/module on how to create their e-portfolios. Furthermore, an e-portfolio assessment framework to be facilitated for the successful implementation of e-portfolio assessment strategy.

This paper aims to review literature on the impact of using web-based technology such as blogs and social networks to facilitate and promote peer feedback in ESL writing classrooms. It also investigates how giving and receiving comments from peer students can improve students' performance in writing as well as their critical thinking skills. A combination of 47 peer reviewed studies were included in this review. All these studies were found on MUN online library and the selection criteria I used in searching was studies that are relevant to: ESL writing, the importance of peer feedback and the role that web-based technology can do to facilitate peer feedback in ESL writing classrooms. The results showed that reflective assessment of peers' writing helps students develop their peers' and their own writing performance. They also stressed the role of web-based technology in providing a stimulating environment for students to reflect on peers' written work. However, some studies revealed the challenges that might affect using this technology such as students' reluctance, fear of sharing writing online and their sensitivity to being criticized publicly.

This paper presents findings from a systematic review of 11 studies examining online teacher professional development (oTPD) in Canada between 2000-2020. A thematic content analysis of the articles led to four main themes associated with research on oTPD: 1. knowledge exchange; 2. reflective practice; 3. multifaceted learning opportunities; and 4. just-in-time support. The study contexts, research methods, and other relevant study characteristics are also reviewed and discussed. The results shed light on the current research trends on oTPD in Canada and highlight the need for continued research in this area. Data from diverse research methods across Canada's geographical regions can contribute to greater insight into the types of oTPD occurring in Canada and how various platforms and professional development opportunities can best support teachers' professional learning.

Abstract: We present Open Review, a web-based platform aimed at stimulating executable papers by means of post-publication peer-review. Its goal is to bring computer science researchers to collaboratively build their work upon previous research results, in such a way that transparency, reproducibility and sustainability of research results are greatly improved. The main design goals of the platform are clarity, conciseness, and reproducibility. Its main features are to: (i) provide incentives for making research communities to participate, (ii) make papers executable by means of boards’ annotations, without necessarily involving the authors of an article, and (iii) give snapshots of the current research state on any given article. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Digital reading is now an important way for children to read. This article defines the concept of children's digital reading based on the current situation, reading needs, and research progress of reading promotion methods. Aiming at the problem that only simple matching method is used for entity extraction in BAG model, this paper proposes an entity extraction method based on reference words and an entity graph construction method based on problem-related entities. Experiments on data sets verify the effectiveness of the model. The results show that the BAG model is improved by 2.4% on the verification set and 4.1% on the test set, which proves the effectiveness of the improved method. Based on the graph convolution algorithm of the central node, the local subgraph convolution and the global graph convolution are connected in the entity graph behind the central node, so that the model can obtain local and global information at the same time and enhance the reasoning ability of the model.

This article presents a systematic review of the literature on the role of educational vlogging in enhancing learning and teaching outcomes. The researcher analyzed a total of 60 papers published from 2011 to 2021 using qualitative analysis with complementary quantitative analysis. The findings shed light on the vital role of vlogging in education over the last decade. This systematic review provides scholars and practitioners in the fields of education and educational technology with valuable information about how to improve learning and teaching through vlogging. The data was collected using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) method. The findings indicated that students and teachers have a positive attitude toward vlogging. Vlogging in higher education is more extensive than in K-12. The main subject in which vlogging is used in K-12 was language, while the main subject in higher education (HE) was found to be reflective practices.

This paper investigates how a semester-long online course in a language and literacy teacher education department coupled a podcast project with archival pedagogy and restorying to explore how ELA (English Language Arts) teachers (preservice, inservice teachers, and those seeking re-entry) worked collaboratively to enrich understandings of instruction embedded in a high-tech environment. The course was taught in the southeastern United States at the height of a global pandemic. After the semester ended, three graduate students (from a class of 21) joined the instructor to qualitatively analyze data collected during the previous 14 weeks. Data sources included digitally stored videos, archived library objects, class emails, rubrics, asynchronous discussion boards, synchronous Zoom discussions, and student-generated podcast projects. Findings point to the merit of providing agentic-learning opportunities through podcasting practices that mediated students' archival work, ELA teacher education curricula, and digital identity formation. Implications are drawn for ELA classroom teachers and teacher educators.

This paper describes a study undertaken within the education faculty of a mid-sized university in response to the recommendations of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) (2014) that initial teacher education (ITE) graduates emerge with an evidence-based professional standards-focused portfolio of teaching competency. In concluding that current teacher educator usage of, and attitudes to, ePortfolios limit the capacity of this particular faculty to respond to this challenge, the paper proposes three critical conditions to revitalise a stalled ePortfolio program and prepare for an increasingly demanding future. In sharing this experience, the paper seeks to support discussion of how teacher educators can respond best to the professional portfolio challenge in an environment of increasing regulation.

The National Institutes of Health has proposed an online archive that will be devoted to clinical medicine and health studies and would be free of charge to scientists of biomedical research. Scholars will be able to post their findings and view the discoveries of their colleagues almost immediately. Paper journal publishers complain that an online database would decrease their circulation and could result in nonobjective publishing.

This paper reports the findings of a project that investigated uses of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) in the creative and performing arts at four Australian universities and raises four significant areas for discussion: engaging technologies as an ongoing requirement of planning, delivery and evaluation of teaching and learning in higher education; ePortfolios and their implications for curriculum planning; the influence of ePortfolios on learning, self-awareness and reflection; and differences in ePortfolio expectations and uses between the varying specializations of music study in higher education. Identifying marked differences between the four higher education institutions in this project and their applications of ePortfolio work, our discussion supports the hypothesis that ePortfolios cannot be applied generically across the arts; rather the ePortfolio requires qualification in expectations, roles, applications and theorisations. The paper makes recommendations for higher arts educators and highlights some of the strategies that heighten the development of professional practice and related learning.

This paper examines the possible characteristics and the value of designing learning activities grounded in connectivism--an emerging learning theory. It is an exploratory attempt to connect the theory to the prevailing technology adoption archetypes used in African contexts with the aim of extracting influences that could shape pedagogical technology adoption in African higher education contexts. A reflection on the process of designing learning activities that employ "blogging" in an experimental training intervention provides a unique context in which to try and infuse connectivist principles while outlining the challenges that surface. The questions driving the argument in this paper include: What do connectivist perspectives offer learning activity design and practice? What can the prevailing technology adoption models used in African contexts offer to learning activity design? Can we combine connectivist perspectives and African-based technology adoption models to inform pedagogical technology adoption in African higher education contexts? These questions are exploratory and are based on one single subjective experience of the author. They are part of an argument put forward as a proposal which is yet to be tested in practice.

This paper describes the evaluation of the use of an ePortfolio which was embedded across a speech pathology program and designed to enhance employability. Personal development planning (PDP) is a key part of employability and includes learning, reflection, goal setting and understanding the wider context. Students' perceptions of their engagement in this process were evaluated using a mixed methods approach. Qualitative data was collected through student focus groups and individual staff interviews, while quantitative data was collected via a student questionnaire (reported in Lewis & Strampel, 2014). Qualitative data was analysed using NVivo following the six phases of thematic analysis described by Braun and Clarke (2006). This paper reports the themes which emerged from the focus group data. A key finding of the study was that the platform used was not ideal for the ePortfolio purpose causing frustration and negative reactions from students and colouring their engagement with, and enthusiasm for, the ePortfolio activities. Students achieved some of the objectives of personal development planning, especially goal-setting, but it was not until students were in their final year that they saw the links with their future career and employment. Further embedding of key tasks would enhance employability aspects, including for example involving industry from the first year and modelling the PDP process with students.

This paper considers Wikipedia and collaborative editing in general: what is Wikipedia, how does it work as a collaborative editing project? Who publishes there, how do these people collaborate, is there a hierarchy among them? And what about Wikipedia quality control: is it efficient, how good is the factual quality of the content? Can Wikipedia be re-used for academic work--and if so, where and how? How does Wikipedia cope with research findings; can they be found on the platform? What influence does Wikipedia have on research and education; how should universities cope with the fact that open knowledge can be found there within a matter of seconds? This paper addresses the issue in a rather hands-on and down-to-earth approach that will allow us to draw some interesting conclusions about the role of open Internet knowledge (such as that which can be found on Wikipedia) for learning and knowledge creation. We will be placing a special focus on academia: for instance, how should universities of applied sciences define "competency based learning" at a time when so many answers can be readily found on Wikipedia? Here the paper does not strive to come to generalized conclusions, but it does strive to find some modest, surprising and--last but not least--also practical answers. The current paper is based on library research, an online analysis of the current Wikipedia website, and interviews with Swiss Wikipedia activists.

Recognizing the importance of meaningful reflective writing as an integral component to the portfolios used in the first-year program (FYP), faculty questioned whether a newly developed electronic portfolio offered any pedagogical benefits over the existing traditional paper portfolio. Of particular interest for this work was whether the use of ePortfolios might positively impact students' metacognitive skills. A study conducted with students and faculty in the FYP evaluated student understanding of purpose, significance, and relevancy in their reflective writings. Findings indicate that while both types of portfolios, electronic and traditional paper, contribute positively to students' learning related to "connections to the course," students completing an ePortfolio show heightened levels of metacognition in relation to "connections to learning" and "connections to career or personal goals."

The purpose of this paper is to share results of collaborative effort introducing special education portfolios into an inclusive teacher education program using the Tk20 assessment system. Tk20 is an assessment system for both providing evidence of educational skills and achieving that evidence in such a way as to demonstrate growth of teacher candidates. This is not only important for the teacher candidates as they push themselves professionally, but it is also a crucial aspect of accreditation requirements for teacher education programs. Therefore, the focus of the paper is on the usefulness of standards based, working and exit electronic special education portfolios in teacher education. The three instructors report teacher candidates' learning outcomes and professional development by analyzing data in a special education portfolio via Tk20 from special education courses in three phases of a teacher preparation program prior to student teaching practicum. We describe the lessons learned and focus on victories and challenges in our planning and implementation process. We also suggest recommendations for others to implement the interdisciplinary efforts for effective collaboration into a college wide, electronic educational assessment system in order to track the performances of teacher candidates over time.

This paper argues that narratives, specifically literature and memoir, offer a way to build empathy and understanding by moving readers to deeper levels of text interpretation and critique. The paper examines a new literacy framework, Life Histories, that uses talk, collaboration, writing, and performance to understand the complex relationships between character and cultural contexts, an understanding that leads to empathy. Life Histories are explored in three very different contexts: an international workshop in Guatemala, a fifth grade in Westminster, Maryland, and a literacy course at Rowan University. Qualitative naturalistic research is used to explore the ways that Life Histories worked in these three sites and can lead to greater empathy in readers. Qualitative data include student surveys, blogs, online postings, and transcripts from discussions, videotaped performances and life history scripts. This study argues for the power of talk about texts, collaborative writing, and performance to gain a deeper understanding of self and a deeper empathy for others.

Web 2.0 applications to library services are aimed at enhancing the provision of relevant and cost-effective information resources for quality education and research. Despite the richness of these web applications and their enormous impact on library and information services as recorded in the developed world, Nigerian academic libraries are yet to deploy and overcome the challenges of active participation in the application and use of these new technologies to library services. This paper reviewed various success stories of the Web 2.0 technologies to library and information services delivery around the world; competencies required and why Nigerian academic librarians should adopt, embrace and apply Web 2.0 to their academic library services. The paper recommended amongst others, the need for Nigerian academic libraries to take a policy decision on implementation of Web 2.0 technologies to library services; developing adequate core competencies required for librarians in Nigerian higher education institutions and a need for professional development of academic librarians.

Blogging is an excellent way to implement students bringing their further insights to their classmates following an exciting class discussion, continuing an exchange of ideas and providing students with another tool to improve their writing skills. Student class blogging offers many benefits--for student and instructor alike--compared to assigning conventional papers directed only at the instructor. The collaborative writing and peer editing inherent in blogging offer challenges as well as benefits. This paper provides guidance in facilitating a meaningful exchange as well as navigating the nuts-and-bolts technicalities, which may be useful to honors faculty who are establishing a class blog. The authors share ideas for class exercises, assignments, and evaluative expectations co-designed by an instructor and a team of honors students, which may also help bring out maximum creativity and collegiality in the honors blog.

Vocabulary learning needs special strategies in language learning process. The use of dictionaries is a great help in vocabulary learning and nowadays the emergence of electronic dictionaries has added a new and valuable resource for vocabulary learning. The present study aims to explore the influence of Electronic Dictionaries (ED) Vs. Paper Dictionaries (PD) on vocabulary learning and retention of Iranian EFL learners. Seventy college students formed the participants of the study. Before the treatment, a Preliminary English Test was used for assessing the participants' homogeneity. The participants were assigned to Electronic Dictionary (ED) group and Paper Dictionary (PD) group. The treatment lasted for 15 sessions. Eighty-eight new target words were selected in order to be taught in this study. The ED group participants were asked to use their mobile dictionary (Blue Dict dictionary), that include eight popular different dictionaries. The participants of the PD group used their ordinary Paper Dictionaries for finding the meaning of words. In order to check their short-term and long-term vocabulary learning, both groups took part in an immediate and delayed post-test respectively after the treatment. Based on the t-test results, the participants in ED group outperformed those of PD group. The overall results indicate that EDs can improve vocabulary learning.

This paper presents the results of collaborative research between open textbook provider OpenStax College (OSC) and the OER Research Hub (OERRH), a Hewlett funded mixed methods open research project examining the impact of open educational resources (OER) on learning and teaching. The paper focuses primarily on the results of two surveys that were conducted with educators using a range of OSC open textbooks during 2013 and 2014/2015. The results of this research shows that OER such as OSC enables a majority of educators to better respond to student needs whilst often making teaching easier and in some instances changing teaching practices. Although this paper does not focus on the impact of OER on students, a majority of educators surveyed perceive an increase in student satisfaction when using OER such as OSC and believe that OSC are saving students money. A list of resources is provided.

This paper carries on a tentative interpersonal metafunctional analysis of the interpersonal metafunction online news headlines about COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis involved the differences in the mood type distribution, polarity, modality and other lexical characteristics. The findings reveal the dominance of the declarative mood texts tells the particular function of the online news headlines. It's informing the readers, rather than questioning or demanding them. Positive declarative clauses should convey information and convince readers with positive facts. A negative polarity does not imply a negative impression but confirms that a certain issue is inconsistent with what has become apparent. The use of 'must' indicates that the speaker has a firm and strong conviction about a particular issue and that the readers are obliged to take the necessary steps in connection with what is believed. Word choices and the clause structure reflect the context of the texts and not the mood adjuncts or the modal verbal operators. Analysis of the functional structural mood text is very useful for understanding the interpersonal relationships between participants.

This paper reports on a distinctive one-year online open crowdsourcing initiative which originated in the Republic of Ireland with a view to compiling an A-Z directory of educational technology tools for teaching and learning. Through analysis of multiple sources of data, the paper presents an intrinsic case study which outlines the design and implementation of the initiative and offers critical insights into engagement and participation in the project. The study found that participants from across the spectrum of educational sectors contributed to this project from a range of geographical locations, with significantly greater numbers engaging with the directory of educational technology tools that resulted from the crowdsourcing activity. It concludes that the creative project design, combined with a novel crowdsourcing methodology encompassing elements of collaboration, competition, and gamification, were strong motivational factors for participation. The case study provides a valuable context for considering the wider potential of this particular crowdsourcing format (and crowdsourcing applications in general) for teaching and learning purposes.

The use of digital textbooks in mathematics is increasing. However, the implementation of digital textbooks in schools is complicated. The objective of this paper is to understand how the introduction of a digital textbook affects the activity of teaching mathematics. An intervention was conducted where six mathematics teachers, with students in aged 7-15, used a digital textbook for six weeks. This paper applies cultural-historical activity theory to consider contradictions that arose in the activity. Four contradictions were revealed: first, teachers' need for coherence and linearity vs. the digital textbook with a wide range of content and nonlinear paths; second, teachers' need for transparent learning processes vs. the digital textbook as opaque; third, teachers' beliefs about appropriate pedagogy for learning mathematics vs. the pedagogy embedded in the digital textbook; and fourth, differentiated instruction for all students vs. digital textbook supporting individualization for every student.

Digital technologies are an integral part of Higher Education teaching, revealing a set of technologies chosen to integrate formal learning contexts, and therefore being used by students in support of learning. This paper presents a literature review mapping the digital technologies set for higher education students to use in formal education contexts, over the last five years between 2012 and 2017. Results show a pattern of technologies reflecting teacher's choice for methods combining face-to-face and at distance learning, frequently in relation to the adoption of flipped classroom methods. Mapping the digital technologies used by students, showed a pattern of three most used in a total of nine types identified. Institutional Learning Management Systems mainly support a wider access to information and learning materials, followed by technologies that promote publishing and sharing content related to class activities, and a broad range of technologies categorized under ICTs. The overall impact of use of technologies in students learning process and outcomes revealed to be positive, used with the intention to promote students' active engagement and participation in the learning process inside and outside the classroom walls. The data also revealed digital technologies to support more transmissive ways of teaching, facilitating students individually to Access, share and publish information, and significantly lesser used to promote collaborative and cooperative learning.

Electronic books provide learners, lecturers and universities with an extra tool of instructions that can encourage or improve the learning process. The purpose of the current paper is to investigate obstacles students face in using e-books at the Saudi Electronic University. A mixed-method research design was used. Thirty students participated in two focus group sessions and 215 students participated in a self-developed survey designed to confirm the existence of obstacles revealed from qualitiave data. Results suggest that cost, eye-strain, and distractions were regarded as obstacles. Practices such as highlighting and taking notes were found to be limited. With the trend toward implementation of e-books in learning, e-book developers should consider factors that help students enjoy using the devices in education. Integrating multimedia, hyperlinks and other features of using technology in reading should be considered. Recommendations have been included in this study.

The internet ubiquity in education has flooded the teaching and learning process with digital tools and drastically changed many aspects of academic life, including students' reading habits. This study aimed at exploring students' perceptions of using the internet to develop reading habits. The study employed the qualitative descriptive method with survey design and involved 43 students of the English department of Universitas Kristen Indonesia Jakarta. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire consisting of 20 items. The results showed that 43% of the respondents had a positive perception that the internet developed their reading habits. However, the majority of them regarded reading as merely an activity for getting information to finish school assignments. They viewed the internet as the main source of information they needed to finish their learning assignments. Since about one-fifth of them preferred paper-based reading, it was concluded that not the whole of Generation Z members totally ignored printed reading materials.

To fulfill the demand of teaching and learning quality in Higher Education, different means of evaluating, assessing, and accrediting academic programs have evolved. The need arises on finding scientific tools to measure and assess quality at different stages of educational processes. In Higher Education, course portfolio is considered one of essential quality assurance tools used. It is used to monitor and develop activities, to help students construct knowledge, and to improve the academic activities. This paper tackles the effectiveness of such tool for improving learning and teaching processes College of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Bahrain. The results of this study showed that the college faculty have a positive perceptions towards the use of course portfolio. They also, positively perceive the usefulness of audit results of the course portfolio and show good intention towards using electronic course portfolio; however, they need more training and support to use it effectively. In this study, the benefits of course portfolio as an independent variable was found to be a significant predictor of e-portfolio acceptance. College of Health and Sport Sciences need to improve the implementation of e-portfolio system through continuous faculty feedback and improvement plans.

At a time of great dynamism among publishers of scientific publications, with the inevitability of Open Access and the ease of publishing online at low cost, it is possible to find publications with different levels of scientific respectability. In this context, the improvement of the quality of scholarly publications emerges as a critical element for publishers, authors and academic institutions, as well as for society in general. This opinion piece discusses Open Access journals with different levels of quality, focusing on the following quality-promoting measures: blacklists, author's preparation, and institutional prevention. The analysis allows concluding that the open review will be one of the key elements in the process of clarification and promotion of the level of quality and consequent scientific respectability of each of the Journals, of the thousands currently existing, a number that is likely to increase.

This paper reports on the research findings from a national project examining the issues in creating, sharing, using, and reusing open educational resources (OER) in the context of the development of open education in Ireland. One important aspect of the research was to investigate the potential for using existing institutional research repository infrastructure for the purpose of ingesting, managing, and discovering OER produced by academics. This approach would imply a move from previous strategy around a centralised repository at the national level to a devolved model that relies on institutional research repositories. The opportunities and potential barriers to the adoption of this approach were explored through an online survey and focus groups with academics from a range of higher education institutions (HEIs). Also, a focus group of institutional repository managers was convened to discuss the potential of the institutional repositories with those leading their development. Analysis of the data indicates that the devolved approach to institutions would be possible if the right supports and protocols were put in place. It was acknowledged that research repositories could potentially also serve as repositories of teaching materials, fostering parity of esteem between teaching and research. However, a range of important challenges were present, and alternative solutions emerged, which are discussed in the context of the present and future of online OER repositories.

The increasing use of digital technology by young people has become a major concern in the 21st century. This access to technology has led to hot-button arguments surrounding the place of these technologies in our lives and the implications that they have for the future. The incorporation of multimodal and digital technologies in courses has been increasing, with documentaries, social media posts, and blogs host significant spaces for learning and coursework. These forms of knowledge and communication have started to become legitimized in the classroom setting, in addition to the traditional educational technologies such as lectures and textbooks. This paper explores the assumptions by instructors and students concerning why and how multimodal and digital technologies are incorporated into undergraduate classes by qualitative approach. Also, the actual experiences that students and instructors have in using these forms of media in an educational context are investigated via participant observation, in-depth review and open-ended questionnaire techniques along the research.

Online digital platforms can increase access to educational opportunities for marginalised students, authors and communities, but digital platform design can further marginalise Indigenous knowledge because such platforms are structured according to western epistemological assumptions. They do not accommodate for Indigenous or alternative knowledge frameworks. In addition, the premium placed on openness by certain platforms and licenses contradicts the approaches preferred by Indigenous knowledge authorities who tie the sharing of some types of knowledge to the identity and authority level of the intended audience. Knowledge in this context is not understood as discrete units of information that can be abstracted from their communities, easily shared on public platforms, but rather as sensitive materials that can only be shared by recognized knowledge authorities for specific purposes. The processes by which Indigenous knowledge authorities engage with knowledge sharing on digital platforms comprise a complex landscape in which social justice concerns come into play. This paper discusses how, within institutional design contexts, open educational practice (OEP) by Northern Australian Indigenous authors can enable different forms of social justice and work incrementally towards achieving greater recognition of Indigenous intellectual sovereign acts with due respect to the wider significance of Indigenous Sovereignty (Rigney 2001). It examines three sets of Indigenous open resources to gauge the extent to which open digital platforms allow for the expression of Indigenous knowledge authority, one necessary feature for achieving social justice in the Australian context. It examines the resources using Fraser's social justice framework (2005) as modelled by Hodgkinson-Williams and Trotters' (2018) and Lambert's (2018) approach to educational resources, and how design decisions can result in greater justice in knowledge affirmation and transformation but originate in offline decision making.

This paper presents a corpus-driven analysis of the linguistic competition between the suffixes "-our"/"-or" in Early Modern English. It is conceived as a state of the art to provide an explanation of the development and distribution of these competing suffixes in Early Modern English. The study is based on the distribution of the most common set of words with alternative spellings in the period to investigate the development and the standardisation of the "-our" and "-or" groups. The study offers the quantitative distribution of the suffixes in the period corroborating the participation of phenomena such as linguistic extinction, specialisation, blocking and lexicalisation in the configuration of the contemporary morphological paradigm. The source of evidence comes from the corpus of "Early English Books Online" (Davies, 2017) for the period 1470-1690. In addition to this, the study also relies on sources such as the "Evans Corpus" (2011), the "Corpus of Historical American English" (Davies, 2010) and the "Corpus of Contemporary American English" (Davies, 2008).

This study explores the utility of employing a student-created experiential narrative ePortfolio as a multimodal tool for reflective practice in WIL. It does so by examining a case study situated within the performing arts, where WIL discourses are rarely adopted, and few examples are present in the literature. This paper introduces a circular mentoring framework that extends Kolb's experiential learning model, whereby learning is facilitated through the interchange of roles through rehearsal and reflection. In this study, participants prepared and performed an opera in a professional venue over a five-day period of intense creative studio work. The 2017 and 2018 "Inclusion Project" is an innovative teaching and learning opportunity that offered authentic industry-based experience to undergraduate music students in a closely monitored, non-placement WIL setting. Participants (n=18) undertaking a semester long elective, reported their experience through online journaling in an ePortfolio allowing them to create narrative responses. A qualitative analysis using narrative inquiry on the ePortfolio reflections indicated a direct benefit for student's career readiness as creative artists.

The article describes the revolutionary new ways of communicating the written word when moving from the Medieval to Modern period in Europe, primarily the use of paper and moveable typeface printing and how these catalysed important cultural developments. A similar revolution has taken place in the last 50 years with the development of the internet. The article looks at how scientific publishing has changed with electronic publishing, including the development of Open Access. The journal Heritage Science is placed into this context. Especially important for scientific journals in an era when anyone can post anything on a webpage, is maintaining standards through high quality refereeing which distinguishes formal scientific literature from informal websites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach suitable for the selection of an appropriate textbook using an evaluation checklist designed to focus on the relevant topics and coverage suitable for students undertaking a first-year accounting course at university level. The resulting checklist is derived from the literature and adapted for accounting requirements, the evaluation takes into consideration current forms of textbook availability (eg online and e-book) and provides guidance through an excel spreadsheet evaluation tool.

Using qualitative data gathered through 144 questionnaires completed online by education sector personnel, this paper examines the relevance of a definition of e-working to the educational context. It identifies that the definition, which draws on and extends existing knowledge and identifies e-working to be a way of being a worker as well as a way or a mechanism for carrying out the work task, has clear potential to be applied within the education sector. The paper identifies that it is not the composite elements of the definition which may appear alien to the worker in the educational context, but instead inference drawn from the way in which the e-working term has hitherto been regarded.

Recently, many universities have started to do their best to enhance their contribution in the scientific publication. Thus, researchers and faculty members have been offered many various financial and promotional incentives for publishing their papers in international journals, particularly the ISI ones. The present study aims to identify the opportunities and obstacles that faculty members at Najran University can obtain by publishing in ISI journals. In addition, distinction of the most important obstacles that can hinder such publication was another aim of the present study. Based on intensive review of related literature and a series of structured interviews, a questionnaire was developed, validated and verified. A stratified sampling method was used to choose participants of this study. Findings revealed that the contribution of ISI Journals to the identification of globally well-known journals, the development of participants' skills of refereed scientific publication in international journals, and the provision of positive attitudes towards scientific publication were the most important opportunities researchers have got. However, high standards of ISI journals, mastery of foreign languages, mainly English, and the originality of high intellectual topics were the most important barriers or obstacles that faculty members encountered when trying to publish their article papers in ISI journals. No statistically significant differences due to study variables regarding the opportunities were found. Nevertheless, significant differences due to specialization and previous knowledge of publication in ISI Journals were found.