Collaborative Virtual Learning in Education in STEM Education

There has been a recent explosion of interest from academics across a wide range of disciplines in the use of Multi-User Virtual Environments for education,driven by the success of platforms such as Internet Communication Technology learning skills in higher education.While digital virtual worlds are used in the 21st century learning,advances in the capabilities and the spread of technology have fed a recent boom in interest in massively multi-user 3D virtual worlds for entertainment,and this in turn has led to a surge of interest in their educational applications.As these platforms are used more often as environments for teaching and learning,there is increased need to integrate them with other institutional systems,Web-based Virtual Learning Environments(VLE)in particular.In this paper,we briefly review the use of virtual worlds for education,from informal learning to formal instruction,and consider what is required to turn a virtual world from a Multi-User Virtual Environment into a fully fledged 3D Virtual Learning Environment(VLE).In this we focus on the development of Moodle—a system which integrates the popular 3D virtual world of Second Life with the open-source Virtual Learning Environment.

Effective Learner-Lecturer Interaction Working With a Virtual Learning Environment

Using the Internet to learn a language creates wide opportunities to enhance learning （Association of teachers of English in Catalonia （APAC）, 2010）. The Internet activities promote learners＇ self-monitoring ability, encourage the use of multimedia and network technology, and develop students＇ cooperation and participation. During the latest years, there have been many changes in education as these new technologies, including VLEs （Virtual Learning Environments）, which have become an important part in the teaching/learning process. According to Tech Terms Computer Dictionary （2012）, VLE is a virtual classroom where teachers and students communicate. VLEs have evolved as at an early stage, they were only ways of transmitting information： Teachers uploaded the multimedia resources and students read this information. At a higher stage, VLEs have become interactive. This means that students become active. We have designed a virtual environment where students, weekly, must contribute their opinions and comments in response to a required activity uploaded by the teacher. In this paper, we describe this weekly task and analyze students＇ opinion about this planned activity. The students become an active subject in this field. In this paper, we show how VLEs are no longer a means of transmitting information but a means of interaction as well as a way of motivating our students to be involved in their learning process

Learning the English Language the Fun Way Through Virtual Learning Environment： A Proposal

Learning is a difficult concept to define, let alone gauge. While the students are learning, their learning is far from ideal or from what the lecturers had intended. Ramsden＇s findings suggest that there are different levels of learning and that the majority of students are not attaining the level that lecturer＇s judge to be of value. Learning the English language can be fun through the use of a Virtual Learning Environment （VLE）. Obviously, the trend nowadays is the application of modern technology. Students can now get learning applications on their mobile phones, IPhones, IPads, and ITouch to widen their vocabulary and to increase their knowledge in the four skills such as, Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking. The accessibility of learning materials from the library can now be made available anywhere and anytime for students and teachers. This paper seeks to answer the following questions： （I） What is VLE？ （2） What are the purposes of establishing VLE in a university？ （3） How will the contents make student learning possible？ （4） What will its impact on student learning be？ The author believes that learning ＂how to learn＂ （metacognition） can be improved and enhanced for the students. The VLE serves as a supplementary learning tool in attaining such a goal.

A virtual learning environment of the Chinese University of Hong Kong

This paper introduces a scalable virtual learning environment of the ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong;an explicitly geographical, immersive, and sharable 3Dlearning space with comprehensive social elements. It is characterized by multiuser collaborative modeling, group learning approaches of geo-collaboration,social space-oriented hierarchical avatars, and knowledge exchanging and sharingbased on virtual geographic experiments. Applications for the purpose of publiceducation and virtual geographic experiment, and indicated future works provethe possibility to offer a greater opportunity to foster interdisciplinary collaborations, revitalize teaching patterns and learning contents, improve learners’cognitive abilities to solve problems, and enhance their understanding of scientificconcepts and processes.

A Hybrid Virtual Cloud Learning Model during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the educational systems worldwide,leading to the near-total closures of schools,universities,and colleges.Universities need to adapt to changes to face this crisis without negatively affecting students’performance.Accordingly,the purpose of this study is to identify and help solve to critical challenges and factors that influence the e-learning system for Computer Maintenance courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.The paper examines the effect of a hybrid modeling approach that uses Cloud Computing Services(CCS)and Virtual Reality(VR)in a Virtual Cloud Learning Environment(VCLE)system.The VCLE system provides students with various utilities and educational services such as presentation slides/text,data sharing,assignments,quizzes/tests,and chatrooms.In addition,learning through VR enables the students to simulate physical presence,and they respond well to VR environments that are closer to reality as they feel that they are an integral part of the environment.Also,the research presents a rubric assessment that the students can use to reflect on the skills they used during the course.The research findings offer useful suggestions for enabling students to become acquainted with the proposed system’s usage,especially during theCOVID-19 pandemic,and for improving student achievementmore than the traditional methods of learning.

TELF-PSPOC: Three-layer Ensemble Learning Framework for Predicting Student Performance of Online Courses

Virtual learning environment(VLE)MOOC provides large-scale data of resources,activities,and interactions within a course structure for predicting student performance.But it is challenging to extract and learn efficient features from student behaviors.In this paper,a three-layer ensemble learning framework for predicting student performance of online courses(TELF-PSPOC)at an early phase is proposed to analyze data collected from Open University Learning Analytics Dataset(OULAD).First,feature augmentation of student behavior is proposed to enrich current features of student performance,including pass rate and grades of all staged tests,daily clicks of online resources.Second,three-layer ensemble feature learning with heterogeneous classifiers(TEFL-HC)is proposed to benefit the integration of tree model and neural network.Compared with current two-layer ensemble learning,pretraining of features prevents overfitting while using nonlinear regression.The experiment shows that our TELF-PSPOC performs better than several baseline models.Besides,the relationship of the learning results and student behavior via VLE is further discovered.

Modeling and game strategy analysis of suppressing IADS for multiple fighters' cooperation

This paper addresses the problem of suppression of the integrated air defense system(IADS) by multiple fighters’ cooperation. Considering the dynamic changing of the number of the nodes in the operational process, a profit model for the influence of the mission’s cost for the whole system is developed for both offense and defensive sides. The scenario analysis is given for the process of suppressing the IADS by multiple fighters. Based on this scenario analysis, the modeling method and the specific expression for the payoff function are proposed in four cases for each node. Moreover, a distributed virtual learning algorithm is designed for the n-person and n-strategy game, and the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium(MSNE) of this game can be solved from the n × m × 3-dimensional profit space. Finally, the simulation examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and the game algorithm.

Mastering Presenters by Means of Visual Aids： Assessing Students＇ Oral Presentations

The introduction of the ICTs （Information and Communication Technologies） in education has set a new paradigm in knowledge acquisition. The Internet, overhead projectors and interactive boards, presentation and animation software, and online databases are only some resources that teachers use in order to present information in a more dynamic, immediate, and stunning way, transforming and revitalizing the teaching-learning process. The ICTs have been established in the university classroom and nowadays, they have become an essential part in this teaching-learning process. Lecturers make use of them in the same proportion as they make of traditional materials. At the same time, students have to be acquainted with these new technologies and they also have to be able to deal with them. The objective of this paper is twofold： On the one hand, we study and show how our students make use of the technologies when they have to face their oral presentations in the subject Advanced English： Professional Settings （English Studies Degree at Universitat Jaume I in Castellen, Spain）. It is acknowledged that visual aids can be helpful to support a speech, but we want to analyze if the visual aids are successfully applied, how and to which extent. On the other hand, we want to make out the opinions of their classmates about the use of these graphical resources （students fill in a questionnaire about the effectiveness of the visual aids in their classmates＇ presentations and how they would improve them）. Results demonstrate that not only teachers make advantage of the new technological resources, we show, based on the students＇ oral presentations and their peer-reviews, that also our university students are increasingly aware of the advantage and importance of the ICTs in the classroom.

Current Situation of International Education for International Students in China

Over the past decades,China has become the education hub for many international students due to its internalization policies,education standards,economic advantage and the technological advancement.However,due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic which also affected the educational sector,the closure of boarder necessitated the transition from in-person teaching to virtual teaching for international students unable to come to China due to restrictions.This paper focuses first on the concept of internationalization,internationalization mechanism of China and the management model of international students and second on the current situation of international students within and without China.The source of the data for this study consists of previous literature and survey data collected using an online questionnaire.The findings of this study reveal that international students experienced minor difficulties in transitioning and adapting to online classes,although the level of satisfaction of the students is low.Based on the findings of the study it can be concluded that the Chinese internationalization agenda and corporations can be further enhanced by establishing online programs for international students,which will require rigorous adjustment of the curriculum to accommodate more people around the globe among other considerations.