Purpose: This paper aims to draw on a socio-technical perspective to explore how information and communication technology (ICT) supports the validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL) in specific practices and arrangements. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use qualitative content analysis to analyse 43 country reports of the…

The use of instant messaging groups for various academic purposes is a rising, but largely understudied, trend in higher education institutions. In the present study we investigate the use purposes and outcomes of three types of academic instant messaging groups or AIMGs. Formal AIMGs are created and managed by teaching staff, class AIMGs are…

Automatic short-answer grading has been studied for more than a decade. The technique has been used for implementing auto assessment as well as building the assessor module for intelligent tutoring systems. Many early works automatically grade mainly based on the similarity between a student answer and the reference answer to the question. This…

Camouflaging is described as a set of strategies used to prevent others from noticing one's social difficulties. Research indicates heightened levels of camouflaging behaviours in the adult autistic population. To extend understanding of camouflaging in adolescents, this mixed-methods study explored camouflaging behaviours in offline and online…

School counselors are often isolated in their role because of the unique nature of their job. Lack of connection, lack of relevant professional development, role ambiguity, high stress, high student-to-school counselor ratios, and lack of professional connections are all contributors to school counselor burnout. School counselors use Twitter, a…

Virtual reality promotes prosocial behavior on various issues, including homelessness, ageism, and the environment. Recently researchers have explored the potential for a virtual reality experience to promote an empathic perspective transformation with promising results. The purpose of my proposed research is to investigate and explain the…

The Mayan city of Chichen Itza is full of legends and mysticism. There, in the temple of Kukulkan, in front of a great pyramid with 91 central staircases, an interesting physical-acoustic phenomenon occurs that has fed mythical stories attributed to the Mayas. When clapping your hands in front of the steps, the echo sounds very different from the…

Students face several difficulties in introductory programming courses (CS1), often leading to high dropout rates, student demotivation, and lack of interest. The literature has indicated that the adequate use of gamification might improve learning in several domains, including CS1. However, the understanding of which (and how) factors influence…

Inferential reasoning is an integral part of science and civic society, but research shows that it is a problematic domain for many people. One possibility for a more accessible approach to inferential reasoning is to use randomization tests via computer simulations. A case study was conducted with primary preservice teachers after they had passed…

Automated Essay Scoring (AES) technologies provide innovative solutions to score the written essays with a much shorter time span and at a fraction of the current cost. Traditionally, AES emphasized the importance of capturing the "coherence" of writing because abundant evidence indicated the connection between coherence and the overall…

Background: Social contact and belonging are among the most important keys to health and wellbeing, especially for the most vulnerable during the current global pandemic. Method: This reflective paper describes the authors' efforts to sustain an online version of a well-established community psychology-oriented group for men with learning…

Background and Context: Block-based programming is a popular approach to teaching introductory programming. Block-based programming often works in the context of microworlds, where students solve specific puzzles. It is used, for example, within the Hour of Code event, which targets millions of students. Objective: To identify design guidelines…

In this paper I describe an interactive Gauss's law computer simulation using the GlowScript programming environment. The simulation calculates a point charge's electric field at locations on the surface of a Gaussian cube and displays the electric field in GlowScript's 3D graphics window. The point charge can be moved, and the electric field…

The benefits of micro-teaching (pre-service teachers practicing their teaching skills with small groups of peers or students) are well documented. However, the overcrowding of the teacher education curriculum, in part due to regulatory mandates, led many initial teacher education (ITE) programs to abandon using micro-teaching. The focus of this…

This study aims to determine students' opinions about the educational use of the Metaverse. The study was conducted during the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. The sample of the study consists of 34 second-year students at the Department of Computer Engineering of a state university in the Southeast Anatolia region of Turkey. The…