Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future


Book Description

To some in academia, Massive Open Online Courses are a paradigm shift in online education, while others perceive them as a threat to traditional styles of pedagogy. In this regard, the time-honored model of the university lecture is seen as being a potential casualty of the rise of MOOCs. Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future provides insight into the emerging phenomenon of MOOCs as a design manual for the course designer with a collection of chapters that deal with all facets of the MOOC debate. Industry training developers, corporate trainers, educators, post graduate students, and others will benefit from the information provided in this book.




Deep Fakes, Fake News, and Misinformation in Online Teaching and Learning Technologies


Book Description

Choosing the right technologies to match student learning outcomes in today's technology-integrated classrooms presents educators and instructional designers with multiple curricula and instructional design challenges including selecting appropriate technologies to match desired student learning outcomes. As students continue to have broad access to information from a variety of web-based platforms, educators and educational professionals are increasingly tasked with ensuring the information used to complete key assignments or tasks is authentic and from a verifiable resource. As such, the era of deep fakes in images, audios, videos, and digital texts is more prevalent than ever as numerous programs using artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly alter original content to fundamentally change the intent of original content. Moreover, students are being bombarded by a plethora of information that is either intentionally or mistakenly false and must be navigated with care. Accordingly, educators and educational professionals are now tasked with employing best practices to not only teach basic digital literacy and citizenship skills but also to recognize how technology-immersed learning environments interact with deep fakes and misinformation while equipping students with the tools necessary to recognize authentic and altered content. Deep Fakes, Fake News, and Misinformation in Online Teaching and Learning Technologies is a critical reference source that addresses rising concerns of students’ ability to navigate the multitude of false and altered information and content that is easily accessible through online platforms. The chapters go into deeper detail about how deep fakes, fake news, and mis- and dis-information have the potential of negatively affecting the fields of teaching and learning and the importance of student access to content-related tasks from legitimate, vetted resources that accurately reflect the desired information the student means to convey. The book seeks to reinforce the importance of digital literacy and digital citizenship among adolescents. This book is essential for teaching faculty, higher education faculty, higher education administrators, educational software developers, security specialists, information specialists, media specialists, librarians, educational researchers, and students looking for information on how deep fakes and fake news are being navigated within the context of online teaching and educational technologies.




Computer-Mediated Learning for Workforce Development


Book Description

Technology has become a driving force of innovation in every industry and professionals need to strengthen their proficiency in emerging technologies to remain competitive. Today’s working world is very demanding of young professionals, as recent graduates are expected to come into their chosen field both knowledgeable and ready to hit the ground running, with minimal on-the-job training. Computer-Mediated Learning for Workforce Development delivers crucial knowledge on how to prepare twenty-first century students for today’s fast-paced workforce. This book explores the use of multimedia programs in classrooms to train students on necessary technology skills through techniques such as game-based training curriculums and massive open online courses (MOOCs). This publication also touches on computer-mediated youth civic action and interaction by examining the use of social media during the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter movements. Filled with critical information on educational technology, mobile learning, and employment preparation, this book is a vital resource for academicians, education practitioners, school administrators, and advanced-level students.




Comparative Perspectives on Inquiry-Based Science Education


Book Description

The core practice of professional scientists is inquiry, often referred to as research. If educators are to prepare students for a role in the professional scientific and technological community, exposing them to inquiry-based learning is essential. Despite this, inquiry-based teaching and learning (IBTL) remains relatively rare, possibly due to barriers that teachers face in deploying it or to a lack of belief in the teaching community that inquiry-based learning is effective. Comparative Perspectives on Inquiry-Based Science Education examines stories and experiences from members of an international science education project that delivered learning resources based around guided inquiry for students to a wide range of schools in 12 different countries in order to identify key themes that can provide useful insights for student learning, teacher support, and policy formulation at the continental level. The book provides case studies across these 12 different settings that enable readers to compare and contrast both practice and policy issues with their own contexts while accessing a cutting-edge model of professional development. It is designed for educators, instructional designers, administrators, principals, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and students seeking current and relevant research on international education and education strategies for science courses.




Creating Caring and Supportive Educational Environments for Meaningful Learning


Book Description

In a seemingly tumultuous time of political change, caring and healing are needed now more than ever. This is especially true in education, which has been criticized for a disproportionate focus on the technical aspects of teaching with less focus on its “human” aspects. Creating Caring and Supportive Educational Environments for Meaningful Learning is a collection of innovative research on the practical and theoretical questions involved in organizing traditional and nontraditional areas of study around themes of care and support for students within the framework of current educational systems and standards. While highlighting topics including service learning, ethics of care, and student mental health, this book is ideally designed for teachers, administrators, researchers, and academicians seeking current research on the importance and ethics of the human aspects of education.




Competency-Based and Social-Situational Approaches for Facilitating Learning in Higher Education


Book Description

As the paradigm of education in academia continues to shift towards more diversity and inclusion, educators need to consider incorporating a “both-and” mindset when designing relevant education models in adult education. In order to attain a cross-sector collaboration among diverse stakeholders, innovative education practice settings with instructional strategies that meet the learning needs of every student need to be evaluated and implemented. Competency-Based and Social-Situational Approaches for Facilitating Learning in Higher Education is a critical research resource that discusses project-based and social-situational instructional practices within community engagement as a method for educating adults. The approaches to designing and implementing learning activities show how to optimize community and business knowledge assets to collaboratively design and implement curricula in order to work toward social justice and community development. Divided into three sections, this publication provides extensive coverage on the design and delivery of academic programs, instructional approaches, and more, making it an ideal resource for professionals, adult education practitioners, faculty, administrators, community activists, researchers, and academicians.




Advancing Next-Generation Teacher Education through Digital Tools and Applications


Book Description

The implementation of the Common Core State Standards program has spearheaded many changes within the education field. As this initiative is ultimately designed to optimize student performance and success, it is critical that teacher education programs and technological tools being utilized in classrooms align with Common Core State Standards. Advancing Next-Generation Elementary Teacher Education through Digital Tools and Applications examines the impact of Common Core State Standards on teaching and learning within elementary classrooms. Focusing on the influence that Common Core has on teacher education programs and how the implementation of educational technologies is continuously changing the field, this book is ideally suited for teacher educators, researchers, administrators, classroom teachers, policy makers, and technology support personnel.




Intercultural Foreign Language Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Contexts


Book Description

While research into intercultural teaching has grown exponentially during the past two decades, the research has primarily resorted to the use of quantitative data collection instruments and the interpretation of scores calculated through them. As such, studies in the field can seem somewhat decontextualized, ignoring in some cases setting-specific parameters. Therefore, further study is needed to bring together theory, research, and practice demonstrating how this teaching is reflected in research design and how it is undertaken in different settings. Intercultural Foreign Language Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Contexts is an essential reference source that provides a series of rich insights into the way intercultural education is practiced in numerous international contexts and showcases practical examples of teaching situations and classroom activities that demonstrate its impact within the classroom. Featuring research on topics such as higher education, multilingualism, and professionalism, this book is ideally designed for educators, researchers, administrators, professionals, academicians, and students seeking pedagogical guidance on intercultural teaching.




Modern Technologies for Teaching and Learning in Socio-Humanitarian Disciplines


Book Description

Despite the modernization of the educational process both in colleges and universities, the main way of transferring information from teacher to learner remains their personal contact in classrooms and educational literature. One of the effective ways to optimize teaching and learning is the technological approach to the organization of the educational process. Modern Technologies for Teaching and Learning in Socio-Humanitarian Disciplines aims to systematize technologies for teaching social and humanitarian disciplines and discuss educational technologies that the modern teacher can and should possess including tools for person-oriented learning and for setting and achieving learning goals. The content within this publication examines interactive technologies, social educators, and visual storytelling and is designed for educators, researchers, academicians, administrators, and students.




Cognitive Computing in Technology-Enhanced Learning


Book Description

Various technologies and applications such as cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, and learning analytics have received increased attention in recent years. The growing demand behind their adoption and exploitation in different application contexts has captured the attention of learning technology specialists, computer engineers, and business researchers who are attempting to decipher the phenomenon of personalized e-learning, its relation to already conducted research, and its implications for new research opportunities that effect innovations in teaching. Cognitive Computing in Technology-Enhanced Learning is a critical resource publication that aims to demonstrate state-of-the-art approaches of advanced data mining systems in e-learning, such as MOOCs and other innovative technologies, to improve learning analytics, as well as to show how new and advanced user interaction designs, educational models, and adoptive strategies can expand sustainability in applied learning technologies. Highlighting a range of topics such as augmented reality, ethics, and online learning environments, this book is ideal for educators, instructional designers, higher education faculty, school administrators, academicians, researchers, and students.