This paper is dedicated to the higher education institutions shifting towards distance learning processes due to the global pandemic situation caused by COVID-19 in 2020. The paper covers the pandemic situation in Poland generally, analyzing governmental ordinances and tracking the gradual extension of restrictions for educational institutions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of Experience, Enjoyment, Computer Anxiety, and Self-Efficacy on students’ acceptance of shifting education to distance learning. The study tested and used the adapted General Extended Technology Acceptance Model for E-Learning (GETAMEL) in the context of coronavirus pandemic. The partial least squares method of structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed research model. The study utilizes an online survey to obtain data from 1692 Polish undergraduate and graduate students in both full- and part-time study. The dataset was analyzed using SmartPLS 3 software. Results showed that the best predictor of student’s acceptance of shifting education to distance learning is Enjoyment, followed by Self-Efficacy. Both Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness predict student’s Attitude Towards Using and Intention to Use the distance learning. The findings improve understanding regarding the acceptance of distance learning and this work is therefore of particular interest to teachers and practitioners of education.
The article deals with distance education, which as a teaching method had to be suddenly introduced in schools and higher education institutions as a result of the global pandemic situation. The paper captures the second wave of Poland’s pandemic situation in relation to global circumstances and the methods of conducting distance learning used across the globe. The purpose of this study was to investigate first-year students’ expectations about the education shift to distance learning. GETAMEL, which is the adapted General Extended Technology Acceptance Model for E-Learning, was used in the study. The study analyzed the influence of Experience, Subjective Norms, Enjoyment, Computer Anxiety, and Self-Efficacy on students’ expectations in the context of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. To test the research model presented during the research, The Partial Least Squares method of Structural Equation Modeling was used. An online survey was created to conduct the research, which collected data from 670 Polish first-year undergraduate students. The acquired data were analyzed using the SmartPLS 3 software. The results of the research indicated that the most important factors that influence the feelings of students and can convince them to change from teaching in the classroom to teaching in the distance learning model are the feeling of pleasure in this form of education and a sense of self-efficacy. The results of this study may be of particular interest to education practitioners, including teachers, and a starting point for further research on e-learning models, including, in particular, the understanding of students’ expectations regarding distance learning.
18 May 2024 in Education and Information Technologies
Since OpenAI released ChatGPT, the discussion on its usage in education has been conducted by students and teachers of every education level. Also, many studies have been performed on the tool’s possibilities and the threats related to its usage, such as incomplete or inaccurate information obtained or even plagiarism. Many universities worldwide have introduced specific regulations on ChatGPT usage in academic work. Furthermore, research on using ChatGPT by students and their attitudes towards it has appeared. However, a research gap exists in higher education teachers’ acceptance of AI solutions. The goal of this research was to explore the level of acceptance of the usage of ChatGPT by academics in Poland, as well as point out factors influencing their intention to use this tool. The study motivation was related to an ongoing academic discussion mainly focusing on the disadvantages of AI solutions used in scientific work and the willingness to fill the gap by showing teachers’ attitudes toward AI. The data was collected online by inviting academic teachers from Polish public universities to complete the prepared survey. The survey was prepared using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model extended with Personal Innovativeness. It revealed the acceptance level of ChatGPT usage in Polish universities by teachers and researchers and the antecedents influencing willingness to use this technology in academic work. The paper contributes to the theory of AI usage by structuring the studies regarding ChatGPT application for teaching and research, and provides practical recommendations on ChatGPT adoption in the work of academics.
11 June 2019 in Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Oeconomica
In modern and developing economic systems, Knowledge Management (KM) is considered to be one of the most important activities of almost any organization. KM process at universities includes didactic processes, among which we distinguish the process of individualization of education. Such process requires a large amount of information to be processed both by university workers and students. This paper suggests that Knowledge Graphs are a technology that facilitates and enhances KM processes at universities and gives an extended review of a Knowledge Graph phenomenon.
8 April 2020 in International Journal of Online and Biomedical Engineering (iJOE)
The recent emergence of a new coronavirus (COVID-19) has gained a high cover in public media and worldwide news. The virus has caused a viral pneumonia in tens of thousands of people in Wuhan, a central city of China. This short paper gives a brief introduction on how the demand for information on this new epidemic is reported through Google Trends. The reported period is 31 December 2020 to 20 March 2020. The authors draw conclusions on current infodemiological data on COVID-19 using three main search keywords: coronavirus, SARS and MERS. Two approaches are set. First is the worldwide perspective, second – the Chinese one, which reveals that in China this disease in the first days was more often referred to SARS then to general coronaviruses, whereas worldwide, since the beginning, it is more often referred to coronaviruses.
This research is dedicated to one of the significant problems connected with purchasing online: consumers’ personal data security. The purpose of the paper is to present the results of a study of an incident of a personal data breach from the Morele.net online store that occurred in Poland. The current gap in the literature is the lack of research done among consumers who suffered from a data breach. Data from 826 people affected by this incident were collected and used for drawing conclusions regarding the changes that took place after the incident. The data obtained are both qualitative and quantitative. The data set was analyzed using the IBM SPSS software package. The evolution in consumers’ trust towards the store was studied and results reveal that it has strongly decreased, although this did not influence consumers’ attitudes towards online shopping in general. The main finding of the research is that one out of three affected consumers will discontinue online shopping on Morele.net; however, they will not tend to change their online shopping behavior in general—they will just purchase in other online stores. Moreover, even though consumers were disappointed, and many were considering no longer purchasing from this site, the store still had significant opportunities to regain consumers’ trust and save its competitiveness in the market. The results suggest several improvements that should help online stores stay secure and trustworthy for their consumers. It was revealed that consumers had not previously been greatly concerned about their data being protected by the store; this incident, however, had changed this fact, and now consumers had become much more conscious about providing any of their data to any website.