Programming skills (PS) are indispensable abilities in the information age, but the current research on PS cultivation mainly focuses on the teaching methods and lacks the analysis of program features to explore the differences in learners' PS and guide programming learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study aims to explore horizontal…

MOOCs can be considered as a powerful alternative in extraordinary situations where people cannot reach formal education. In recent years, the widespread use of the internet worldwide and especially the COVID-19 has increased the need of people for MOOCs. However, in order to increase the effectiveness of MOOCs, and to provide a better learning…

In recent years, a wide array of tools have emerged for the purposes of conducting educational data mining (EDM) and/or learning analytics (LA) research. In this article, we hope to highlight some of the most widely used, most accessible, and most powerful tools available for the researcher interested in conducting EDM/LA research. We will…

Most distance learning institutions collect vast amounts of learning data. Making sense of this 'Big Data' can be a challenge, in particular when data are stored at different data warehouses and require advanced statistical skills to interpret complex patterns of data. As a leading institute on learning analytics, the Open University UK instigated…

Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to provide baseline data and characteristics of food served and consumed prior to the recently mandated nutrition standards as authorized by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA). Methods: Over 600,000 school lunch menus with associated food production records from 61 elementary schools…

The objective of this article is to illustrate that text mining and qualitative research are epistemologically compatible. First, like many qualitative research approaches, such as grounded theory, text mining encourages open-mindedness and discourages preconceptions. Contrary to the popular belief that text mining is a linear and fully automated…

Feedback is a crucial form of information for learners. With the availability of new educational technologies, the manner in which feedback is delivered has changed tremendously. Existing research on the learning outcomes of the content and nature of computer mediated feedback is limited and contradictory. "Signals" is an educational data-mining…

Twelve-year-old Susan took a course designed to improve her reading skills. She read short stories and the teacher would give her and her fellow students a written test every other week measuring vocabulary and reading comprehension. A few days later, Susan's instructor graded the paper and returned her exam. The test showed that she did well on…

An ontology is an effective formal representation of knowledge used commonly in artificial intelligence, semantic web, software engineering, and information retrieval. In open and distance learning, ontologies are used as knowledge bases for e-learning supplements, educational recommenders, and question answering systems that support students with…

Excessive college course withdrawals are costly to the student and the institution in terms of time to degree completion, available classroom space, and other resources. Although generally well quantified, detailed analysis of the reasons given by students for course withdrawal is less common. To address this, a text mining analysis was performed…

As course management systems (CMS) gain popularity in facilitating teaching. A forum is a key component to facilitate the interactions among students and teachers. Content analysis is the most popular way to study a discussion forum. But content analysis is a human labor intensity process; for example, the coding process relies heavily on manual…

The general scope of SPIRAL is storage of free-flowing text information into a machine-readable library and recall of any portions of this stored information that are relevant to an inquiry. The major objectives in the design of the system were (1) to make it easy to use by persons unfamiliar with computer systems; and (2) to make it efficient, in…

Quantitative techniques of content analysis were used on documentary and mass communication material from Communist China as a means of identifying and accounting for social, political, and economic change in that society. Articles from "The People's Daily" and the "China Youth Post," radio dispatches, wall posters, terms, and…

A transformational model offers a way to eliminate the middleman (programmer) in acccessing a computerized data base. It provides a basis for the algorithms which analyze the input query. The linguistic analysis of the sentence string is translated into system terms and the required operations are carried out. (28 references) (Author/NH)

The logical structure of the data bank is described from the user's point of view, without reference to machine implementation. The length of files, records, segments, and fields are variable and unlimited; duplication factors are unlimited; sequence of files, records within file, and segments within record are random. All data are subject to…