Volume 23, Number 1, February 2022 Special Issue: AI E-Learning and Online Curriculum

EN:

Early warning systems (EWSs) have been successfully used in online classes, especially in massive open online courses, where it is nearly impossible for students to interact face-to-face with their teachers. Although teachers in higher education institutions typically have smaller class sizes, they also face the challenge of being unable to have direct contact with their students during distance teaching. In this research, we examined the online learning trajectories of students participating in four small private online courses that were all taught by one teacher. We collected relevant data of 1,307 students from the campus learning management system. Subsequently, we constructed 18 prediction models, one for each week of the course, to develop an EWS for identifying students in online asynchronous learning at risk of failing (i.e., students who fail their final examination). Our results indicated that the fifth-week model successfully predicted student performance, with an accuracy exceeding 83% from the eighth week onward.

EN:

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are open access, Web-based courses that enroll thousands of students. MOOCs deliver content through recorded video lectures, online readings, assessments, and both student–student and student–instructor interactions. Course designers have attempted to evaluate the experiences of MOOC participants, though due to large class sizes, have had difficulty tracking and analyzing the online actions and interactions of students. Within the broader context of the discourse surrounding big data, educational providers are increasingly collecting, analyzing, and utilizing student information. Additionally, big data and artificial intelligence (AI) technology have been applied to better understand students’ learning processes. Questionnaire response rates are also too low for MOOCs to be credibly evaluated. This study explored the use of deep learning techniques to assess MOOC student experiences. We analyzed students’ learning behavior and constructed a deep learning model that predicted student course satisfaction scores. The results indicated that this approach yielded reliable predictions. In conclusion, our system can accurately predict student satisfaction even when questionnaire response rates are low. Accordingly, teachers could use this system to better understand student satisfaction both during and after the course.

EN:

This work discusses a nudging intervention mechanism combined with an artificial intelligence (AI) system for early detection of learners’ risk of failing or dropping out. Different types of personalized nudges were designed according to educational principles and the learners’ risk classification. The impact on learners’ performance, dropout reduction, and satisfaction was evaluated through a study with 252 learners in a first-year course at a fully online university. Different learners’ groups were designed, with each receiving a different set of nudges. Results showed that nudges positively impacted the learners’ performance and satisfaction, and reduced dropout rates. The impact significantly increased when different types of nudges were provided. Our research reinforced the role of AI as useful in online, distance, and open learning for providing timely learner support, improved learning experiences, and enhanced learner-teacher communication.

EN:

Online learning has been widely discussed in education research, and open educational resources have become an increasingly popular way to help learners acquire knowledge. However, these resources contain massive amounts of information, making it difficult for learners to identify Web articles that refer to computer science knowledge. This study developed an Internet articles retrieval agent combined with dynamic associative concept maps (DACMs). The system used text mining technology to analyze keywords to filter computer science articles. In previous research, concept maps were manually constructed; in this study, such maps can be automatically and dynamically generated in real time. In a case study of a fundamental course of artificial intelligence, this study designed two experiments to compare students’ learning behaviors while using this system and the Google search engine. The results of the first experiment showed that the experimental group searched for more knowledge articles on computer science using this agent, compared to the control group using the Google search engine. The learning performance of the experimental group was significantly better than that of the control group, while the cognitive load of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group. Furthermore, the results of the second experiment showed that the learning progress of students using the agent was significantly greater than that of students who used the Google search engine. This illustrates that the agent effectively filtered computer science articles, and DACMs helped students gain a deeper understanding of academic concepts and knowledge related to artificial intelligence.

EN:

The purpose of this study was to design a curriculum of artificial intelligence (AI) application for secondary schools. The learning objective of the curriculum was to allow students to learn the application of conversational AI on a block-based programming platform. Moreover, the empirical study actually implemented the curriculum in the formal learning of a secondary school for a period of six weeks. The study evaluated the learning performance of students who were taught with the cycle of experiential learning in one class, while also evaluating the learning performance of students who were taught with the conventional instruction, which was called the cycle of doing projects. Two factors, learning approach and gender, were taken into account. The results showed that females’ learning effectiveness was significantly better than that of males regardless of whether they used experiential learning or the conventional projects approach. Most of the males tended to be distracted from the conversational AI curriculum because they misbehaved during the conversational AI process. In particular, in their performance using the Voice User Interface with the conventional learning approach, the females outperformed the males significantly. The results of two-way ANCOVA revealed a significant interaction between gender and learning approach on computational thinking concepts. Females with the conventional learning approach of doing projects had the best computational thinking concepts in comparison with the other groups.

EN:

This study reviews the journal publications of artificial intelligence-supported online learning (AIoL) in the Web of Science (WOS) database from 1997 to 2019 taking into account the contributing countries/areas, leading journals, highly cited papers, authors, research areas, research topics, roles of AIoL, and adopted artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. Results indicate that, from 1997 to 2009, AIoL research focused on the combination of intelligent tutoring systems and distance learning. In 2010–2014, AIoL research emphasized learner-oriented learning. In 2015–2019, learner-system interactions to facilitate personalized, adaptive, and collaborative learning became the main focus. “Intelligent tutoring systems” have played the most important role in AIoL, followed by “profiling and prediction,” and “adaptive systems with personalization.” Accordingly, the roles and research trends as well as several suggestions for future research in the field of AIoL are provided as a reference for researchers and policy makers.

EN:

With the increased emphasis on the benefits of self-regulated learning (SRL), it is important to make use of the huge amounts of educational data generated from online learning environments to identify the appropriate educational data mining (EDM) techniques that can help explore and understand online learners’ behavioral patterns. Understanding learner behaviors helps us gain more insights into the right types of interventions that can be offered to online learners who currently receive limited support from instructors as compared to their counterparts in traditional face-to-face classrooms. In view of this, our study first identified an optimal EDM algorithm by empirically evaluating the potential of three clustering algorithms (expectation-maximization, agglomerative hierarchical, and k-means) to identify SRL profiles using trace data collected from the Open University of the UK. Results revealed that agglomerative hierarchical was the optimal algorithm, with four clusters. From the four clusters, four SRL profiles were identified: poor self-regulators, intermediate self-regulators, good self-regulators, and exemplary self-regulators. Second, through correlation analysis, our study established that there is a significant relationship between the SRL profiles and students’ final results. Based on our findings, we recommend agglomerative hierarchical as the optimal algorithm to identify SRL profiles in online learning environments. Furthermore, these profiles could provide insights on how to design a learning management system which could promote SRL, based on learner behaviors.