No abstract

Several studies have been conducted to evaluate the experience and involvement of academics in learning analytics (LA) due to its potential for improving teaching and learning. However, findings often reflect an educational culture which is indicative of the institutional or national context where the study has occurred, resulting in bias regarding LA perspectives. Therefore, this study seeks to compare and contrast the experiences of LA among academics in Australia and Malaysia, with intentions to learn from each other’s experience. Areas of comparison were: (1) academics’ involvement in LA activities; (2) academics’ responses to the institutional capacity in supporting LA; and 3) academics’ concerns about the ethical issues surrounding LA. A survey of 353 Australian and 224 Malaysian academics revealed similarities and differences. It is evident from these results that the context and infrastructure for LA are at different stages of development in both countries. Nevertheless, the results provide an interesting reflection on academics’ needs, institutional understanding, policies, and educational cultural biases in applying LA in teaching and learning in higher education institutions.

The current trend of education is towards the implementation of technology in teaching in order to attract the attention of 21st century learners whereby teachers need to adopt technology-enhanced environment such as the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in their teaching. This study aims to investigate the teachers’ perceptions and tendency to use VLE as a tool for teaching. The teachers’ perceptions were investigated based on the main constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The respondents were 178 teachers in southern state of Malaysia. The data were collected using a questionnaire and it is validated through the use of Rasch model. The finding was found that the teachers were moderately ready to use VLE and they moderately accepted the implementation of the VLE (mean=3.67 and 3.65). Besides that, the teachers felt that the VLE was useful (mean=3.58) and was easy to use (mean=3.34). It was also found that 84.2% of the teachers’ acceptance was influenced by the teachers’ readiness, and the teachers’ perceptions of the usefulness and ease of using the VLE in teaching. Therefore, it can be concluded that Malaysian teachers has intention to use VLE in their teaching. The use of VLE can improve the innovative way of teaching that can increase students’ interest in constructing knowledge through their learning process.

Purpose This study aims to examine the effects of voice enthusiasm (enthusiastic voice vs calm voice) on social ratings of the speaker, cognitive load and transfer performance in multimedia learning. Design/methodology/approach Two laboratory experiments were conducted in which learners learned from a multimedia presentation about computer algorithm that was narrated by either an enthusiastic human voice or a calm human voice. Findings Results from Experiment 1 revealed that the enthusiastic voice narration led to higher social ratings of the speaker and transfer performance when compared to the calm voice narration. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the enthusiastic voice led to higher affective social ratings (human-like and engaging) and transfer performance as compared to the calm voice. Moreover, it was shown that a calm voice prompted a higher germane load than an enthusiastic voice, which conforms to the argument that prosodic cues in voice can influence processing in multimedia learning among non-native speakers. Originality/value This study extends from prior studies that examined voice effects related to mechanization, accent, dialect, and slang in multimedia learning to examining the effects of voice enthusiasm in multimedia learning.

Blended learning is widely known for its ability to improve learning, nevertheless little is still known about the best ways of designing effective blended learning environment which can support immersive learning such as greater learning experience and accessibility to education. In this respect, this study investigates the mapping of the principles of three Education 4.0 innovative pedagogies, namely, heutagogy, peeragogy, and cybergogy, with the capabilities of three technological learning tools, that is, Facebook (FB), Learning Management System (LMS), and Blog, via a systematic literature review technique. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used as the methodology, and the literature was further selected using Gough's Weight of Evidence criteria, resulting in 59 studies. The results show that cognitive factor is the most linked pedagogical principle to the four main capabilities of technological learning tools, that is, time, self-related, learning task, and learning community-related. This mapping is useful for instructors to plan learning and teaching by choosing the technological learning tools that match with appropriate Education 4.0 pedagogies for optimising the immersive blended learning practices.