This article aims to describe how students prefer to interact with E-Books in Estonian basic schools. A literature review is presented, describing relevant frameworks, theories, and contradictions. The advantages and disadvantages of using E-Books in education are outlined, and the features of an effective distance learning environment for E-Books implementation are described. Innovative technology (process mining) is suggested for analyzing the process of interacting with E-Books. Two models of students' interaction with E-Books are proposed based on students' levels of digital competence; the models have been developed using process mining algorithms. Clusters of students are identified and described based on their strategies of using E-Books. The frequency of each cluster is presented.

While the Open Learner Model (OLM) is often mentioned to be an educational tool supporting the learning process (chiefly, activities such as planning, self-monitoring, and reflection), there is a need for theorising OLMs as an educational tool. More specifically, this means 1) to theorise what it is educationally meaningful; 2) see how the different characteristics of the tool (e.g. features, types, etc.) mediate the learning process in the light of theory deployed; and 3) empirically determine the conditions under which such mediation is educationally successful. As a case in point, we performed a literature review to investigate how studies using OLMs have deployed self-regulated learning. The results show that the theorisation of OLMs as an educational tool remained rather fragmented and occasional.

The aim of the study was to find out which advantages and disadvantages teacher students point out when using video diaries (compared to written diaries) during school practice and what are the similarities and differences of reflection levels between video and written diary posts. The dataset includes the results of written questionnaires from 24 teacher students and video and written diary posts by 18 of those students. Data was analyzed using inductive and deductive content analysis. The results of the study reveal that the advantages of video diary are the richness of emotions and authenticity, faster compilation, alternation to written work and opportunity to get used to watching and hearing oneself on video. The disadvantages pointed out were fear of the camera, issues with technology and digital competence, choice of location for video-recording, logic and thoughtfulness of the text and potential unwanted circulation of video material. Written practice diary posts contained fewer meaning units than video diary posts. In reflections of both formats, the descriptive level was most common.

While computational thinking (CT) has been identified as one of the fundamental 21st century skills that can be applied to different domains, school students usually show negative attitude toward learning CT. Educational games have been applied by several researchers to address related issues faced for promoting CT. Even though such games have shown some success in promoting CT, they fall short when it comes to acquisition of CT skills (they rather promote abstract and conceptual knowledge) and offering adaptivity to each player. To address these issues and improve the existing games, we developed an adaptive game called AutoThinking for teaching both CT concepts and skills, engaging students with individually tailored gameplay and learning. We conducted a qualitative study aimed at understanding the cognitive and affective experiences of Estonian primary school children. The findings showed that AutoThinking is making children feel challenged, happy, and confident, while activating their thinking process during the gameplay. All children perceived the game positively and found it to be a good tool for learning.

Decision making is not a trivial task and its effectiveness depends on the quality of the thinking processes. We argue that the decision making process could be more effective if the decision is made as a result of systematic thinking according to a theoretical model of agency. We analyzed how the ecological model of agency could support decision making. The theoretical model of agency describes three dimensions iterational, projective, and practical-evaluative. However, this model has been not empirically confirmed. Therefore, we developed a questionnaire to assess agency and conducted two studies to test the model in two contexts with two different samples to ensure validity. In both cases the model was confirmed.

The aim of this discussion paper is to propose a framework to apply contemporary learning approach in using augmented reality (AR) for inquiry-based learning. Our literature review shows that AR is mainly used in learning on a very simplistic level and the potential of AR has not been opened. Therefore, we propose a new framework for applying contemporary inquiry-based learning using augmented reality. This framework specifies how the affordances and features of AR could be applied in instructional design according to the five general phases of inquiry-based learning and how the principles and goals of the contemporary learning approach are supported in this learning approach.

Complex problem solving is one of the key skills for future jobs, but it has not been clearly operationalized. We hypothesized that it is a construct of inquiry, computational thinking, and mathematical problem solving. The hypothesis was empirically tested by administering tests to 261 high school students for assessing three inquiry skills, two dimensions of computational thinking and five mathematical problem solving skills. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a three factor model of inquiry skills and two factor model of computational thinking skills to have a good fit. Mathematical problem solving skills were characterized with a two factor model. These factors were combined in a higher-order factor model into one construct that could be defined as a complex problem solving skill.

The general goals of education have changed in the 21st century. The contemporary learning approach aims at achieving better self-fulfillment, openness and lifelong learning opportunities for every learner. This presents new demands on technologies. Technological advancements are often ahead of their use in educational settings, but nowadays we can also see that the contemporary learning approach sets unmet demands to technology developers. This paper introduces the objectives of the contemporary learning approach and discusses how 11 existing advanced technologies could help achieve the objectives of the contemporary learning approach. The review shows that educational technologies are mainly designed to improve subject knowledge and skills and can be quite often used to support collaboration and self-regulation as well. However, learning skills and especially subjective well-being are less in focus.

Learning analytics (LA) is a promising tool to support learning and retention in studies; so far, many applications have been developed to make use of big data saved automatically while using online learning management systems. However, it is not clear how different applications support the contemporary learning approach or how they are valued by both teachers and students. Therefore, a qualitative study was conducted to explore university teachers' and students' expectations on LA. Several scenarios were provided to them in order to feed their ideas about the potential of LA. The results were linked to the characteristics of the contemporary learning approach. This showed that while self-regulation is the most often supported objective enhanced by LA, collaboration skills and subjective well-being need much more attention. It was also found that students were more positive than teachers in starting to use LA and teachers' opinions varied greatly.

Low retention rates in higher education Information Technology (IT) studies have led to an unmet demand for IT specialists. Therefore, universities need to apply interventions to increase retention rates and provide the labor market with more IT graduates. However, students with different characteristics may need different types of interventions. The current study applies a person-oriented approach and identifies the profiles of first-year IT students in order to design group-specific support. Tinto's [13, 14] integration model was used as a framework to analyze questionnaire data from 509 first-year IT students in Estonia. The students’ response profiles were distinguished through latent profile analysis, and the students were divided into four profiles based on their responses to questions about academic integration, professional integration, and graduation-related self-efficacy. The difference in academic integration was smaller among the profiles than the difference in professional integration. Knowing these profiles helps universities to design interventions for each student group and apply the interventions to increase the number of IT graduates.

Modern teaching methods, including the need to use information technology in teaching, are receiving increasingly more attention in higher education pedagogy. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the technology mentoring programme that was launched in the University of Tartu and to categorise the reasons why 15 university teachers who specialise in the field of education decided to take part in the technology mentoring programme, describe their expectations of the programme and describe their current teaching practices with regard to employing ICT at the start of the mentoring programme. Results indicate that the main reason for joining the programme was the teachers' wish to make learning more interesting for both themselves and their students. By joining the programme, university teachers hoped to gain more knowledge of various ways to use technology in teaching, thereby supporting students in their learning efforts. The opportunity to have systematic discussions about teaching-related topics with other participants of the technology mentoring programme was also considered an asset. At the start of the programme, the university teachers described their own experience of using ICT mainly in connection with information retrieval, content creation and communication.

Thinking computationally has become an important part of many disciplines. In creating lesson plans for teaching computational thinking (CT), an instrument can be used to assess the development of CT. This poster presents the Bebras Challenge tasks for assessing two skills of CT: exploring and developing algorithms, and finding patterns.

There is high demand for qualified Information and Communication Technology (ICT) practitioners in the European labor market. In Estonia, the problem is not a low number of ICT students but a high dropout rate. The aim of this study is to find how it is possible to predict first-year dropout in higher education ICT studies and possibly to engage methods to decrease dropout rate. Data was collected from 301 first-year ICT students in Estonia who filled in a questionnaire at the beginning of the first semester and after the first semester. Additionally, some information was collected electronically during the admission process. The results showed that on average, 32.2% of the ICT students in Estonia dropped out during the first study-year. It was found that students who dropped out had lower scores in the state mathematics exam. This means that the score of the mathematics exam is one characteristic that can predict dropout during the first study-year. At the beginning of the studies there were not many differences in students' perception of their interest and how well the studies met their expectations. However, the answers received after the first semester showed some statistically significant differences between the students who dropped out during the first study-year and those who did not. Differences occurred, e.g., in the case of the following questions: how big their interest in ICT was, how well the studies met their expectations, how pleasant studying was for them, and how high they felt was the probability of them finishing their studies. It can be concluded that asking questions after the first semester gives information to universities as to who are about to drop out. Based on the information universities can support their students to retain them. The results support some factors that were found in literature to be important for avoiding dropout (e.g., motivation, earned credit points, prior studies, expectations), but in some cases the results of this study are different than the literature suggests (e.g., age, gender, working during studies, number of friends in the ICT field). It could be that these factors are not that important in influencing first-year dropout in ICT studies.

Dropout in ICT studies is a big problem all over the world. This paper gives an overview of research in Estonian ICT student dropout and shows that progress in mathematics and programming courses is important in preventing dropout. Online tools could be used for making these kinds of courses more attractive and effective for students. Possibilities of online tools and two different conceptual remote labs are described in this study in more detail and a combined solution for preventing students' dropout is presented.

Recent studies show that pupils are very enthusiastic when using robotic systems and robots in schools. However, these are mainly used only in extracurricular activities to learn about the robots, take part in different contests or for research purposes. The research and practice of integrating web-enhanced learning environments and inquiry learning with robots is almost absent. The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary results of such a pilot study conducted in Estonia. Pupils used web-based worksheets, robots and a programming environment to conduct an inquiry experiment in physics. These worksheets consisted of two principal parts that followed the hypothesis and the experiment space of inquiry cycle. First results indicated that pupils manage fine in such an environment and acquire more knowledge through practical tests and inquiry learning with the use of robots.

In this study, we analyzed the application of a web-based learning environment named "Young Researcher" (http://bio.edu.ee/teadlane) in developing learners' transformative and regulative inquiry skills. We designed a theoretical framework of interactions between inquiry processes and tested it empirically. Data were collected during an all-Estonian competition in which 268 pairs of students from grades 6 to 12 (aged 10-18) participated. During the competition, five problem-solving tasks were solved in the "Young Researcher" learning environment. The analysis of the results demonstrated that the learning environment was suitable for developing transformative inquiry skills and regulative planning skills. It also revealed that the students were actively monitoring and evaluating their learning. Significant interactions were found between planning and transformative inquiry skills, while correlations between other regulative skills and between these regulative skills and transformative skills did not appear.

Designing a computer-supported learning scenario involving a constructivist approach of learning lays on a paradox. On the one hand, learning flows must be precisely described - including role distribution, required resources, tools, and scaffolds - to be realized in computer-supported environments. On the other hand, a fine-grained formalization of learning flows diverges from the constructivist notion of learning that learners are responsible for their knowledge (co-)construction. This paper draws upon the fundaments of a new concept so called ldquolearning activity spacerdquo (LAS) aiming at realizing some necessary flexibility when designing learning scenarios. LAS is the basis of a graphical scenario modeling language intelligible for non-computer scientists but still rich enough in detail to describe a large set of computer-supported learning scenarios.

A crucial challenge for improving EMLs is to provide an intuitive notation to support educational practitioners to not only understand, but also describe a large number of flexible scenarios themselves. We present here the general outline of a graphical modeling language based on the concept of learning activity space (LAS) and its related editor so-called SCY-SE. The design stage of learning computer-supported scenarios can be facilitated by the use of LAS arrangements as improved in the context of an interdisciplinary European project named SCY (Science Created by You).

The application of web-based learning environment “Young Scientist” (http://bio.edu.ee/noor) in developing the 6th grade students’ inquiry skills (aged 10-12) was studied. The main objectives have been to evaluate the development of students’ inquiry skills and how the development of these skills depends on their pre-skills. 302 students all over Estonia solved three problems in the following topics: “The Production of Plants”, “The Fertilization of Plants”, and “The Biological Control of Plant-hazardous Insects”. According to the results of the pre- and post-test their skills of formulating problems, research questions, and hypotheses, planning and conducting investigations, analyzing data, and skills of making inferences developed statistically significantly. Spearman correlation demonstrated that the highest development occurred among the students with initial low level of inquiry skills. The only exception was found in the case of formulating research questions since more advanced pre-skills led to higher development.