The Influence of Social Presence in Online Classes Using Virtual Conferencing: Relationships between Group Cohesion, Group Efficacy, and Academic Performance

Predicting factors influencing perceived online learning experience among primary students utilizing structural equation modeling Forest Classifier approach

Introduction

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the temporary closure of educational institutions led to the adoption of remote or online learning delivery. Challenges, especially for grade schools were evident.

Objective

This study aimed to identify factors affecting the perceived online discussion experience of Filipino primary students through distance learning in the National Capital Region, Philippines.

Method

Variables such as cognitive presence, teaching presence, social presence, and online discussion experience were investigated simultaneously by utilizing the structural equation modeling (SEM) and random forest classifier (RFC) approach. A total of 385 currently enrolled Filipino grade school student participants were surveyed.

Results

Results show that cognitive presence has the most significant impact on the perceived online discussion experience, followed by teaching presence, and social presence. This study is the first study that analyzed the online discussion experience among grade school students in online education in the Philippines considering SEM and RFC. It was seen that highly significant factors such as teaching presence, cognitive presence, social presence, triggering events, and exploration will lead to high and very high learning experience with grade school students.

Conclusion

The findings of this study would be significant for teachers, educational institutions, and government agencies to improve the online delivery of primary education in the country. In addition, this study presents a reliable model and results which can be extended and applied for academicians, educational institutions, and the education sector to develop ways in enhancing the online delivery of primary education worldwide.

Mapping the research landscape of Covid-19 from social sciences perspective: a bibliometric analysis

COVID-19 has emerged as a widely researched topic and the academia has taken interest in the effects of COVID-19 in various sectors of human life and society. Most of the bibliometric research addresses scientific contributions in medicine, health, and virology related topics, with very little emphasis on social sciences. Therefore, to address this gap, a bibliometric analysis of research related to COVID-19 in the subject area of social sciences was performed on selected publications from January 2020 to mid-2021. A total of 9289 articles were analysed to identify major emerging themes of Covid-19 and social sciences and how research collaborations between countries have helped in communicating critical issues to academia. The empirical results indicate the dominance of psychology and business economics subjects in the social sciences sphere, with the emerging themes as psychosocial problems among people, economics, the outbreak of SARS, and discussions on the quality of life in terms of surroundings and environment. The study also suggests that more collaborations between social scientists working in different nations is required to explore the less focussed themes addressing the local challenges of poor nations.

Self-Regulation, Teaching Presence, and Social Presence: Predictors of Students’ Learning Engagement and Persistence in Blended Synchronous Learning

Blended synchronous learning (BSL) is becoming increasingly widely implemented in many higher education institutions due to its accessibility and flexibility. However, little research has been conducted to explore students’ engagement and persistence and their possible predictors in such a learning mode. The purpose of this study was to investigate how to facilitate students’ engagement and persistence in BSL. In detail, this study used structural equation modeling to explore the relationships among specific predictors (self-regulation, teaching presence, and social presence), learning engagement, and learning persistence in BSL. We recruited 319 students who were enrolled in BSL at a Chinese university. The online survey was administered to gather data on the variables of this study. The results demonstrated that self-regulation, teaching presence, and social presence were positively associated with learning engagement. Self-regulation and learning engagement were positively associated with learning persistence. Moreover, learning engagement mediated the relationships between self-regulation, teaching presence, social presence, and learning persistence. This study suggests that self-regulation, teaching presence, and social presence are significant predictors for student learning engagement and persistence in BSL.