This study examined students' engagement characteristics in online courses and their impact on academic achievements, trying to distinguish between course completers and noncompleters. Moreover, this research is intended to differentiate between those who pass the final exam and those who do not. Four online courses were examined with a similar pedagogical model (N_students = 646) using learning analytics methods. The results revealed significant differences between students who completed the courses and students who did not, in all 13 variables. Completers' learning activities were more than twice as high, except for writing in the forums. Course subject and ongoing task and assignment submissions predicted course completion, whereas, in addition to these variables, engagement with course materials and reading the forums predicted final exam success, as well. Thus, the prediction of success in final exam emphasized the significant importance of engagement in various activities in the online course.

Integrating mobile technology in schools has become a growing trend in recent years. Studies suggest that the use of tablets has potential contributions for learning. The current study explored the use of tablets for learning among 427 high school students, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The purpose was to assess students’ perceptions toward the effectiveness of using tablets in learning and to examine a model in which perceived engagement mediates the effects of content usage types, and technological and social aspects on perceived learning. The findings indicate that overall, students reported moderate levels of positive attitudes toward tablet use in learning. In addition, it was found that the more students consumed information via tablets, perceived tablet software as easy to use, and communicated with other students through tablets, the higher their engagement was, which in turn led to more positive perceptions of learning. Moreover, a qualitative content analysis indicated that students perceived the technological aspects as the main advantage, and barrier, of using tablets for learning. The implications of the results, as well as the role of perceived engagement in enhancing learning outcomes, are discussed in the context of tablet use in learning.

Background: The global COVID‐19 pandemic turned the adoption of on‐line assessment in the institutions for higher education from possibility to necessity. Thus, in the end of Fall 20/21 semester Tel Aviv University (TAU)—the largest university in Israel—designed and implemented a scalable procedure for administering proctored remote examinations. This procedure is applicable to different kinds of examinations in diverse disciplines and to disparate degree levels.Objectives: This study aims to deepen the knowledge with respect to the design and adoption of remote proctoring at an institutional levelMethods: First, based on lessons learned from the first semester of COVID‐19, we describe the development and implementation of an institution‐wide protocol for conducting on‐line proctored assessment. We show the large‐scale applicability of the protocol for administering examinations via Moodle with remote proctoring via Zoom. The accurately designed procedures that included careful consideration of all parties involved—academic staff members, students, administrative staff and proctors—enabled TAU to successfully assess the learning outcomes of its 25,000 students, while maintaining validity, compatibility and reliability of the assessment. Second, we report combined data from surveys of 4380 students and 188 faculty‐members (18% and 12% response rate respectively), conducted at TAU following these examinations.Results and Conclusions: With over 90% of the students experiencing at least one, and 80% of faculty‐members administering at least one proctored remote examination, these heterogeneous sources of data allow us to investigate a unique and complementary perspective of the process. Some of the significant findings consist of the over‐all perception of the students' integrity by both groups surveyed; the discrepancy in the groups' perspectives of the adequate form of learning‐assessment—with the instructors preferring proctored examinations and the students—formative‐assessment; and the influence of the pedagogical challenges on the perception of validity that outweighed other factors, for example, the pandemic‐related stress, the on‐line assessment challenges and other.

In recent years, much effort has been put into developing dedicated dashboards for instructors, in which data about students’ activity are presented. However, in many cases, such endeavors take a top-down approach and do not involve instructors in the design process. In this paper, we present a study of instructors and teaching assistants in a research university in Israel (N = 253) who responded to an online questionnaire regarding their perceptions of data on students’ activity on course websites. Specifically, they were asked about the types of data they were most interested in, the aspects of student learning that they would consider important, and the actions they would take upon viewing the data. Overall, we found that participants’ scores were medium-high (2.5–3.5 on a 5-point Likert scale), with scores being higher for women compared with men and positively correlated with experience with Moodle. An overarching theme arises from our analyses of instructors’ interests and intentions, which portrays their idea of teaching as somewhat traditional and instructor-centered; however, their declared actions make it clear that they are willing to make some desirable changes to the benefits of students. Finally, we found that instructors’ perceptions of data use and data importance are positive predictors of taking action upon viewing student data.

Globally, educational institutes are trying to adapt modernized and effective approaches and tools to their education systems to improve the quality of their performance and achievements. However, identifying, designing, and/or developing promising mechanisms and tools that can impact class activities and the development of students’ outputs are critical success factors. Given that, the contribution of this work is to propose a methodology that can guide and usher educational institutes step by step through the implementation of a personalized package of training Toolkits in Smart Labs. In this study, the package of Toolkits refers to a set of needed tools, resources, and materials that, with integration into a Smart Lab can, on the one hand, empower teachers and instructors in designing and developing personalized training disciplines and module courses and, on the other hand, may support students (in different ways) in developing their skills. To demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of the proposed methodology, a model was first developed, representing the potential Toolkits for training and skill development. The model was then tested by instantiating a particular box that integrates some hardware to be able to connect sensors to actuators, with an eye toward implementing this system mainly in the health domain. In a real scenario, the box was used in an engineering program and its associated Smart Lab to develop students’ skills and capabilities in the areas of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The main outcome of this work is a methodology supported by a model able to represent Smart Lab assets in order to facilitate training programs through training Toolkits.