We consider an online learning scenario in which the learner can make predictions on the basis of a fixed set of experts. The performance of each expert may change over time in a manner unknown to the learner. We formulate a class of universal learning algorithms for this problem by expressing them as simple Bayesian algorithms operating on models analogous to Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). We derive a new performance bound for such algorithms which is considerably simpler than existing bounds. The bound provides the basis for learning the rate at which the identity of the optimal expert switches over time. We find an analytic expression for the a priori resolution at which we need to learn the rate parameter. We extend our scalar switching-rate result to models of the switching-rate that are governed by a matrix of parameters, i.e. arbitrary homogeneous HMMs. We apply and examine our algorithm in the context of the problem of energy management in wireless networks. We analyze the new results in the framework of Information Theory.

To date, the self-revealing interface has been the elusive holy grail of the user interface community. This research advocates the use of early language learning as a model for early user interface learning. This model can be used to reason about how users learn through exploration, and gain ideas as to how to design the implicit, online help needed to make a user interface self-revealing. The idea for this model came from a strong analogy between user interfaces and language. This analogy is based on fundamental similarities, and strengthened both by observations in a case study, and the general user interface literature. A case study of early exploratory user interface learning was done in the hopes of finding similarities between the learning of languages and interfaces. Although the study did reveal many similarities, which support the model, what was most interesting was their differences. Most notably, motherese, an important form of supportive feedback that is universally present in language learning, was missing in the user interface learning. Motherese is a distinct speech variant that is used by experienced language users in conversing with children. It helps to guide children towards an understanding of correct behaviours through acknowledgment, repetition, and correction of their utterances. An experiment was devised to evaluate an analogous type of instruction in the bootstrap learning of a novel user interface technique. The experiment validated the instruction's ability to shorten the initial learning period and ingrain new techniques better than un-aided exploratory learning. Motherese-style instruction meets the requirements for instruction that is self-revealing, and is firmly grounded by the strong analogy between language and user interfaces. The application of it to user interface learning is online and integrated within the actual context of the application. It is also demonstrative and non-verbal, giving users implicit instruction, and therefore does not suffer from the terminology or contextual switching issues that written instruction does. <br /><br /> Although a number of questions remain to be answered about the general applicability of motherese-inspired user interface instruction, the model presented has yielded the first empirically-based idea for designing self-revealing instruction. It is anticipated that future research using this model will help researchers to reason about both self-revealing instruction and new user behaviour.

The distance learning environment is one that involves a complex array of factors that influence a learner’s perspective of presence, satisfaction, and learning. This study was designed to investigate Lee College freshmen and sophomore students’ perceptions of social presence. The purpose of the study was to (a) determine whether or not differences in perceptions of social presence exist among participants who differ in gender, age, and total level of education and (b) investigate whether or not there was a relationship between the participants’ perceptions of social presence and their online course activities in WEBCT®. This study was conducted using a questionnaire. The data were collected from a convenience sample of 252 freshmen and sophomore level students at Lee College in Baytown, Texas. A response rate of 62% resulted in a final sample of 156. The content validity of the questionnaire was established via expert opinion, and the internal consistency and reliability of the instrument was calculated using Cronbach’s α. Data screening techniques were employed as the first step in the data analysis process. Frequency counts, central tendencies, and standard deviations were used in the descriptive analysis of the data obtained via the questionnaire. Correlations and one-way ANOVAS were employed to answer research question 1 regarding the participants’ perceptions of social presence and their personal characteristics (i.e., gender, age, and their total number of college credits earned). Six conclusions were generated regarding the participants’ perceptions of social presence and their gender, age, and total number of college credits earned. Principal factor analysis with Varimax rotation revealed six constructs for research question 2 regarding the online course activities in WEBCT®. Differences in the participants’ perceptions of social presence in the six constructs for the online course activities in WEBCT® were obtained. A stepwise regression analysis was conducted to obtain additional information regarding the amount of explained variance added by each of the respective predictors. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess reliability of the data. Twelve conclusions were generated for research question 2 regarding the participants’ perceptions of social presence and the online course activities. Specific human resource development practices were suggested.

With the increasing use of the computer and the Internet in the training sector, there are constant debates about the effectiveness of e-learning versus traditional face-to-face (FTF) education since the early 1990s. However, limited empirical studies have been conducted for this purpose in the field of Continuing Professional Education (CPE), on which the flexibility in time and place of e-learning have made and will potentially make a greater impact. Even fewer such studies were situated in a non-academic context for professions other than nursing or healthcare. Moreover, the learners‟ voice is often absent in the debates. This exploratory study was designed to a) obtain professionals‟ perceptions concerning the effectiveness of online versus FTF CPE courses from two pedagogical aspects of adult learning: professional knowledge and practice development and technology context link, and b) assess if professionals‟ perceptions varied as a function of their sociocultural and professional contexts. Self-reported perception data were collected through an online survey. Professionals (n=399) from Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) participated in the study. The professional units where the participants worked included Fire Service, Utilities and Public Work, Homeland Security, Safety and Health, Public Safety and Security, Technology, and Search and Rescue. Exploratory factor analysis (Principle Component Analysis), descriptive statistics, t-tests, multivariate analysis and ANOVAs were run for the purpose of data analysis. It was found that the professionals who participated in the study (a) perceived that online CPE courses were less effective in enhancing their professional knowledge and practice development when compared to traditional FTF CPE courses; (b) perceived that online CPE courses were more effective in linking what they had learned to technology contexts that they were in; (c) perceived that online CPE courses were less effective than FTF courses in general; (d) who were female perceived online CPE courses‟ ability in improving their professional knowledge and practice less negatively than male participants; and (e) who were firefighters favored the online CPE courses compared to professionals from the other units in TEEX, while the professionals from Safety and Health were most negative about the effectiveness of online CPE courses. The responses to the two open-ended questions provided information on the measures recommended by surveyed professionals to improve the effectiveness of online and FTF CPE courses.

Although there are numerous online classes now, yet it is still questionable whether it can achieve the purpose to be initiative, diversified, interactive and collaborative. Taking a look at the current online classrooms, the functions developed by the systems are getting more and more complete; meanwhile, the user-friendliness which is getting improving has brought more convenience for users. However, if there should not be any powerful drive that is pushing from behind, most students would not spend much time getting online to participate in interaction and such classrooms with nearly no students were similar to nonexistence at all. Even for those online classrooms that are more popular among students, the messages left on their bulletin boards are mostly questions for requirements of the class and reposting of some online articles. Not many students can share what they know about these lessons and express how they feel in a profound way, which does not help a lot for learning efficiency of knowledge construction. This study is based on the related theories of learning communities by referencing Tsai, Chung-Yuan¡¦s (Tsai, Chung-Yuan, 2001) instructive interactive design of control, feedback, and facilitate strategies to provide students an online classroom for their spare-time learning by themselves as an experimental platform. Based on a mode of quasi-experiment, it is to group them and manipulate the dependent variables, and to observe the learning behaviors and participation of the subjects in order to empirically test the instructively and socially interactive strategies among teachers and students, students and their peers. For teachers, this study is expected to find an empirically proved strategic mode that can encourage students to have initiative learning and highly participation in the online classroom, and designs a questionnaire aiming at students¡¦ motivations and satisfactions, and the efficiency of group collaborative learning and studying groups. As for students, it is to explore the bottleneck that they have faced and couldn¡¦t break through all the time, then makes a deduction and designs some successful operational strategies to make online classroom work in order to achieve the learning efficacy so that online classroom will not become just another BBS established on the internet platform but can help to fulfill the dream of online learning.

The World Wide Web provides a new communicated environment for learning. In this research, we developed the ¡§online tutoring agents¡¨ to improve students¡¦ learning with the functionality of user profiles¡¦ tracking, recording, analysis and feedback. To solve students¡¦ problems in system adaptability and learning progress control, we provided necessary messages for user and real-time feedback according to their profiles. We have developed a novel learning environment for different students according to their demands. To assist student and teacher for completing their works, our research implemented ¡§online tutoring agents¡¨ in e-learning system. For students, ¡§online tutoring agents¡¨ supports group corporations, learning guideline and learning activities. Our ¡§online tutoring agents¡¨ provided the effective learning environment to save time for students. For teachers, ¡§online tutoring agents¡¨ can assist teacher to control schedule and students¡¦ learning activities as well as term project progress. The ¡§online tutoring agents¡¨ we proposed can provide good and customized environment for both teachers and students.

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As online learning becomes more popular, higher education is becoming more interested in this new medium of learning. However, attrition has become a developing problem for colleges and universities that offer online classes, as some students found it was difficult to stay engaged in their online courses. From the literature, it was hypothesized that instructional designs that incorporate collaborative activities will lead to higher perceived engagement levels than those that incorporate individualistic learning. An exploratory study used a self-report survey instrument to measure students' perception of level of engagement in six graduate-level online classes (n=66). Half of the courses in the study integrated formal collaborative activities as a significant component of the course and half represented learning environments characterized by whole group and individualistic learning. The results showed a significant positive relationship between classes that used collaborative activities and engagement levels. However, the coded responses of the participants showed that while classes that use such activities had higher levels of engagement, it is possible that this may be attributable to other factors external to the formal elements of collaboration in the course. Recommendations are offered for future research that may help identify the elements that contribute to engagement in online courses. / text

This research study, undertaken in an all girls‘ secondary school in London, brings to light different approaches by which a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) may be adopted in order to support the development of students‘ Emotional Intelligence. It examined the views and experiences of 35 teachers (10 of whom were key informants); 5 teaching assistants; 150 students and 2 VLE Content Developers. Drawing upon data obtained from questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions, findings of the study indicate that the strategic adoption of VLE tools for use in discussion forums, homework support and feedback, amongst others, can help in boosting secondary school students‘ self-confidence, self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and motivation to use VLE resources. Furthermore, the argument is made, that developing students‘ Emotional Intelligence through the use of online learning tools can lead to the attainment of emotionally intelligent face-to-face classroom environments and hence positive learning outcomes. Based on a process of inductive reasoning, a framework for supporting teachers in developing their students‘ Emotional Intelligence through VLEs is subsequently proposed and its enablers as well as inhibitors discussed. Finally, whilst emphasising that the use of VLEs to promote Emotional Intelligence is eminently generalisable, the limitations of case study research studies such as this one are acknowledged. Hence, it is recommended that future research in this area is undertaken in different contexts so that a more holistic picture is obtained.

Local and federal governments, public school boards, and higher education institutions have been promoting online courses in their commitment to accommodating public needs, widening access to materials, sharing intellectual resources, and reducing costs. However, researchers of education needs to consider the often ignored yet important issue of equity since disregarding the issue of inequity in online education may create suboptimal consequences for students. This dissertation work, therefore, investigates the issues of social justice and equity in online education. I argue that equity is situated between the tensions of various social structures in a broader cultural context and can be thought of as a fair distribution of opportunities to participate. This understanding is built upon the idea that individuals have different values, goals, and interests; nevertheless, the online learning context may not provide fair opportunities for individuals to follow their own learning trajectories. Particularly, online learning environments can reproduce inequitable learning conditions when the context requires certain individuals to assimilate mainstream beliefs and values at the expense of their own identities. Since identifications have certain social and political consequences by enabling or constraining individuals’ access to educational resources, individuals may try to be identified in line with culturally-hegemonic perspectives in order to gain or secure their access to educational resources or to legitimize their learning experiences. In this interview study, I conceptualize online courses within their broader socio-historical context and analyze how macro-level social structures, namely the concept of whiteness, can reproduce inequity in micro-level online learning practices. By questioning who has control over the conditions for the production of knowledge, values, and identification, I investigate how socially accepted bodies of thoughts, beliefs, values, and feelings that give meaning to individuals’ daily-practices may create inequitable learning conditions in day-to-day online learning practices. In specific, I analyze how those who are identified as non-White experience “double-bind” with respect to stereotypification on one hand, anonymity on the other. Building on this analysis, I illustrate how those who are identified as non-White have to constantly negotiate their legitimacy and right to be in the online environment.