درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Open Soft Software brings about a powerful learning environment, and it transforms the learning and teaching process in which students deal with knowledge in an active and self-directed way. However, over-reliance on conventional methods, lack of awareness, skills, knowledge, among others, are factors militating against the adoption of OSS for learning. This study examines the self-efficacy in the use of open-source software for instruction among undergraduate pre-service teachers in Lagos State. The population for this study were pre-service teachers in all universities in Lagos State. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the universities from where the student samples were drawn based on public universities that are on campus. The instrument for data collection was an adapted questionnaire. Descriptive and Inferential statistics were used to answer the research question and test the stated hypothesis with the aid of stastistical product and service solution (SPSS) version 20.0 at 0.05 level of significant . The findings indicated that undergraduates have low self-efficacy in the use of open-source software for instruction. Also, significant difference exists between male and female pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy on OSS for instruction in Lagos State. This study concluded that most pre-service teachers in Lagos State did not have the skills necessary to use OSS for learning. Therefore, the study recommended that government should organise training for pre-service teachers on the use of OSS for learning. Key words: Self-efficacy, Open-Source Software, ICT, Gender and Constraints

It is a truism that success at university depends on the possession of outstanding writing skills. Yet of all language skills, writing is the most arduous to master and the situation gets even worse in the case of second or foreign languages. The current study aims at investigating the suitable ways to overcome the difficulties students of English face with writing especially in terms of vocabulary items and spelling mistakes by exploring the effects of adapting autocorrect and spell- checkers technologies on their writing skills. The research data comes from an experiment conducted at Adrar University, south of Algeria, in which 18 LMD (Licence-Master-Doctorat, equivalent to the BMD, Bachelor-Master-Doctorate) students utilize autocorrect and spell-checkers as assistive technology. The finding of the experiment shows that the use of assistive technology has perceptible effects regarding the quality of students’ production as these technologies displace the attention from worrying about spelling mistakes to other aspects of writing. The paper does also propose some suggestions regarding the improvement of the writing skill at the level of Algerian Higher educational institutions (HEIs).

In this chapter I review principles and practical aspects of language assessment in foreign language (FL) learning, more specifically with a focus on Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and other contexts in which computers are used as a means for distance learning and for language assessment (Computer-Aided Assessment - CAA). Assessment constitutes an essential dimension of learning experiences and it is an aspect of most formal processes of language teaching and learning. Language assessment may involve language testing, as well as other procedures and instruments such as observations, performance tasks, portfolios and self-evaluation, and by combining information from various sources of assessment one is able to obtain more valid and reliable results. I draw on the literature on CALL and on language assessment, and on data collected within the scope of the Teletandem Brazil Project: foreign languages for all (henceforth TBP), to support my position on principles that may or may not characterize language assessment in the context of teletandem interactions. CAA is defined as any type of activity in which computers are used to support a process of assessment apart from and beyond their simple function to store and transmit information. CAA helps faster assessment, increases the quality and quantity of information detected, and maximizes the provision of feedback about language assessment processes. In the TBP project, undergraduate students from a Brazilian university interacted with students from universities abroad, by means of computer programmes for synchronous communication, microphones and webcams. Besides the claims about CALL from the literature, I make reference to teletandem interactions in both EFL and Portuguese as a foreign language, considering occasions in which teletandem agents evaluate each other linguistic performances. I also analyse a questionnaire for evaluation in teletandem, which does not focus on language assessment but rather on the experience of interacting in the teletandem context and on the tools used for communication. No clear distinctions were found to exist between CAA and more traditional procedures for language assessment. Principles for CAA seem to combine traditional bases for language assessment and testing with a number of pedagogical principles that underpin distance learning.

Although information and communication technology (ICT) is discussed in different aspects of education for a long time and numerous scholarly works have been published by Iranian researchers in Persian and English, but a study that illustrates the whole status of published works is not yet conducted. There is no reliable source to display the body of knowledge produced in this field. For this reason, it is necessary to investigate state of the art of ICT in educational system of Iran through a systematic review of scientific published papers. The present research aims in identifying, interpreting and describing the topics and approaches used by the Iranian authors to study ICT in the educational system of Iran. Achieving the identity or knowledge base of this field is performed with an descriptive-interpretive approach in order to perceive the status of technology application in the educational system of Iran. The research population includes all articles published in the journals of Education and ICT. In this regard, research articles in the field of ICT in the educational system in both Persian and English languages were searched in databases between 2001 and 2022. By using the systematic review method, a list of related keywords and concepts were searched in Persian and English databases which include related journals. After conducting the initial search and applying the inclusion criteria, 112 articles were included in the study. Finally, a detailed review and in-depth investigation was conducted by using qualitative content analysis. Based on the results of the analysis, four dimensions of ICT in the educational system were extracted: “Leadership”, “Professional development”, “Assessment”, and “Teaching-learning process”. Analyses shows that these dimensions are not considered evenly. Sub topics of these four areas as well as ignored areas are discussed. Also, future directions are proposed

The present study investigated the relationship between technology acceptance, electronic assessment (e-assessment) methods and the satisfaction of students at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran, using a descriptive-correlational design. The research population consisted of all the students (n = 14096) studying at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman in the academic year 2021-2023. A sample of 387 students was selected using quota sampling. The data were collected using the Technology Acceptance Questionnaire (Teo, 2009) and two researcher-made satisfaction and e-assessment questionnaires, whose validity and reliability were estimated as 0.96 and 0.88, respectively. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM). The proposed model was evaluated using a two-step approach (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). The Baron and Kenny (1986) approach and Sobel’s test (1982) were used to test the mediating relationships in the proposed model and their significance. The results showed a positive and significant relationship between e-assessment and student satisfaction (β=0.78). There was also a positive and significant relationship between the degree of technology acceptance and student satisfaction (β=0.16), but no significant relationship was found between e-assessment and the degree of technology acceptance among the students (β=0.01). These findings imply that technology acceptance cannot play a mediating role in the relationship between e-assessment and student satisfaction at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. However, satisfaction acted as a mediating variable in the relationship between technology acceptance and the assessment method. Keywords: E-assessment, Technology Acceptance, Student Satisfaction, Students, University.