This study presents the integration of three different teaching scenarios, during biology laboratory lessons, with the overall aim of exploring the potential predominant effectiveness of teaching and improvement of students' learning, by the use of the three‐dimensional virtual reality educational tool Onlabs, versus more traditional didactic practices. A sample of 83, fourth year, undergraduate students of the Primary Education Department of Patras' University in Greece, were equally separated into three cognitively balanced groups to be educated on the light microscopy experiment by three different educational scenarios. Students' conceptual understanding in the domain of microscopy, was evaluated during all learning procedure with Pre and Post tests, whereas their skill to handle properly a real light microscope in the wet biology lab was summatively assessed via a specially designed work sheet. Results of the present study provide evidence in favor of the virtual reality application. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 48(1):21–27, 2020.

In this paper, we present a structured approach to developing an outreach program aimed at improving the coding abilities of pre- and in-service teachers. The paper presents the design and development decisions made using the ADDIE model. External evaluators assessed the material's quality, confirmed the estimated workload, and examined the material's relevance to the educational goals. Learners’ active participation was encouraged through multiple quizzes, and learners were assisted in their learning activities by means of practical examples. Based on the number of people who actually logged into the course, a completion rate of 70.84 percent is achieved. The paper presents and discusses the findings of an evaluation conducted with the assistance of experienced teachers and course participants.

We examined how 1 st year students (10th grade) of Greek Senior High School could conceptualize the influence of the molecular weight of saturated fatty acids on the melting and the freezing point, during the 'change of phase' phenomenon using the Microcomputer-Based Laboratory (MBL) system. Students had to freeze a melted substance, observing at the same time the change of its temperature and trying to explain the temperature vs time curve. They used different saturated fatty acids in order to understand how the molecular weight of each organic acid affects the meltingfreezing point. Data about the students' conceptualizations was collected using three methods: videotape recordings, field notes and supplementary semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the students' responses to the same questions before and after the experiments showed statistically significant differences on their responses in every case. After the experiments there was a clear increase of correct responses concerning the freezing point of the saturated fatty acids, the relation of the freezing point to the molecular weight and the description of this relation.

In Distance education, learning depends on the ability of the learner to manage his/her learning process, both through the creation of appropriate objectives, and by adopting strategies to achieve them. The role of the teacher is to develop an efficient methodology with flexibility over the learners’ special characteristics and to create conditions to enable the learners to manage their learning process. This research aims to investigate the parameters which are involved in synchronous teleconference and which lead to effective learning through the support of an autonomous environment. The research was conducted with students of the Annual Training Program for Teachers of Higher School of Pedagogical and Technological Education Department in Patras. The results show that teleconference as teaching tool can support the autonomous learning and can enhance personalisation as this process can help students to learn and develop skills by receiving efficient support.

Online fora have become not only one of the most popular communication tools in e-learning environments, but also one of the key factors of the learning process, especially in distance learning, as they can provide to the students involved, motivation for collaboration in order to achieve a common goal. The purpose of this study is to analyse data related to the participation of postgraduate students in the online forum of their course at the Hellenic Open University. The content of the messages posted is analysed by using text mining techniques, while the network through which the students interact is processed through social network analysis techniques. Furthermore, sentiment analysis and opinion mining is applied on the same dataset. Our aim is to study students' attitude towards the course and its features, as well as to model their sentiment behaviour over time, and finally to detect if and how this affected their overall performance. The combined knowledge attained from the aforementioned techniques can provide tutors with practical and valuable information for the structure and the content of the students' exchanged messages, the patterns of interaction among them, the trend of sentiment polarity during the course, so as to improve the educational process. Abstract in GreekΟι διαδικτυακές ομάδες συζήτησης (Forum) είναι ένα από τα δημοφιλέστερα εργαλεία επικοινωνίας σε μαθησιακά περιβάλλοντα. Αποτελούν έναν από τους βασικούς παράγοντες της μαθησιακής διαδικασίας, ειδικά στην εκπαίδευση από απόσταση, καθώς παρέχουν στους συμμετέχοντες εκπαιδευόμενους τα απαραίτητα κίνητρα συνεργασίας για την επίτευξη κοινών μαθησιακών στόχων. Σκοπός αυτής της εργασίας είναι η ανάλυση δεδομένων από τη συμμετοχή μεταπτυχιακών φοιτητών του Ελληνικού Ανοικτού Πανεπιστημίου σε διαδικτυακή ομάδα συζήτησης στα πλαίσια μαθημάτων του Προγράμματος Σπουδών τους. Το περιεχόμενο των δημοσιευμένων μηνυμάτων των συμμετεχόντων αναλύθηκε χρησιμοποιώντας μεθόδους και τεχνικές εξόρυξης κειμένου, ενώ η αλληλεπίδραση των φοιτητών μελετήθηκε μέσω τεχνικών ανάλυσης κοινωνικών δικτύων. Επιπλέον, στο ίδιο σύνολο δεδομένων εφαρμόστηκαν τεχνικές ανάλυσης συναισθήματος και εξόρυξης γνώμης. Στόχος μας είναι η μελέτη της συμπεριφοράς των φοιτητών απέναντι στο μάθημα και τα χαρακτηριστικά του, καθώς και η μοντελοποίηση της συναισθηματικής τους συμπεριφοράς με την πάροδο του χρόνου και, τέλος, η ανίχνευση του αν και κατά πόσο αυτή επηρεάζει την συνολική τους επίδοση στις σπουδές τους. Ο συνδυασμός των γνώσεων που προκύπτουν από τις προαναφερθείσες τεχνικές μπορεί να προσφέρει στους εκπαιδευτές πολύτιμες και πρακτικές πληροφορίες για τη δομή και το περιεχόμενο των μηνυμάτων που αντάλλαξαν οι φοιτητές, για τον τρόπο αλληλεπίδρασης μεταξύ των φοιτητών, για την τάση της συναισθηματικής πολικότητας τους κατά τη διάρκεια των σπουδών τους, έτσι ώστε να βελτιωθεί η εκπαιδευτική διαδικασία.