Recent advances of communication technology have brought a myriad of advantages to distance education. Students' interactivity and connectedness are no longer a concern in distance education. Yet, with this comes the challenge of maintaining academic integrity. As online instructors, we noticed a tendency among our online students to opt out of using our courses' formal discussion groups for their course communication, and instead, independently create a group in the social instant messaging app, WhatsApp, away from our direct observation. In this mixed method research, we first investigated what motivate our students (n= 64) to create the WhatsApp group and what types of interaction they engage in as a group. Then, we examined our online students' perceptions of cheating in reference to their participations in the group. Our findings revealed that our online students perceived cheating differently and expressed their objection to the inclusion of the term 'cheating' in the distance-learning contexts, as they believed that distance learning is an open educational environment which permits collaboration and open discussion.
Visual complexity is widely considered to be an important variable underlying visual perception. While videos have become versatile in their use of visual imagery, surprisingly, little research has been devoted to understanding the impact of visual complexity. In this paper, we present Automated Video Analysis (AUVANA) software, an open-source tool for extracting, computing, and visualizing visual complexity in digital videos. Through leveraging more sophisticated computer vision and video processing algorithms, AUVANA automatically extracts and computes 78 video visual complexity indices. Results of explanatory analyses demonstrated that rather than a unitary construct video visual complexity is more likely a multidimensional and multifaceted phenomenon. We conclude the paper with a discussion about the potential applications of the software
The present empirical study examined the efficacy of coupling L1 or L2 definitions with pictorial glosses on incidental vocabulary learning when L2 learners exclusively play a purposely designed hidden-object game. Elementary EFL learners (n= 162) took a vocabulary pretest and a picture recognition test (PRT) and a word recognition test (WRT) immediately after playing the game, and again two weeks later. ANOVA analyses were conducted to measure vocabulary acquisition and retention. The findings revealed that the L1 text + picture gloss group did significantly better than the other two groups in the immediate acquisition of vocabulary. Concerning vocabulary retention, the two vocabulary measurements yielded different outcomes. In PRT, the L1 text + picture gloss group kept the highest retention rate, whereas in WRT, the L2 text + picture group did better than the other groups. This study suggests that assessment methods may yield different outcomes in multimedia vocabulary learning studies.
Undeniably mass media have become the primary source of information and communication for the majority of, if not all, members of modern societies. The nature of the information thus communicated and the manner in which it is dispensed through media certainly have a profound influence on people's perceptions of the world around them. The relation between the media, on one hand, and culture, social life, and politics on the other, is an interesting one in which media fulfills dual functions, reflecting and also shaping issues occurring within these three domains (Bell & Garrett, 1998). In the initial media coverage of the 2011 Norway terrorist attacks, some western media authors, inaccurately and unjustly, held Muslims and Islamic groups as being responsible for the attacks. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study seeks to ascertain how language was manipulated in this coverage of the terrorist attacks in order to give expression to blind prejudice against Islam and Muslims. As findings of the analyses reveal, the tones of allegation in these articles and reports differed dramatically from one article to another ranging from tones of mere suspicion to those of overt accusation. The varying degrees of uncertainty or assertion of the authors' statements were reflected in the varied linguistic forms and devices used within the discourse.
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