Abstract
Digital learning ecosystem plays important roles for transforming teaching classroom into learning community. This article used a mixed method to (1) explore the teaching and learning activities and components of a digital learning ecosystem through eighteen in-depth interviews and six observation classroom teachings of three subjects (English, Mathematics, and Science), and (2) measure the factors influencing the success of the ecosystem from a survey of 350 teachers at high schools in Thailand under the KKU Smart Learning Project. The quantitative data is analyzed by using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis; meanwhile, researchers used manually coding method for qualitative data to categorize data into themes and sub-themes. The findings revealed an ecosystem includes four core components: learning community, learning atmosphere, active learning, and teaching and learning support. However, it is important for junior high schools to clarify and improve seven factors affecting the development of this ecosystem to boost classroom transformation into learning community. This study is useful for policy makers, educators, and teachers to issue educational policies and objectives, invest infrastructure, design curriculum, and organize teaching activities to enhance the effectiveness of learning outcomes.
Introduction
The rapid development of digital technologies has provided new opportunities for educational institutions to transform their educational activities. In the light of this, the digital transformation yielded a lot of benefits in enhancing the learners’ competence and experience, management, and accessibility, providing quality learning resources, and increasing the information exchange ability (Hashim et al., 2021). Nevertheless, it has also created challenges concerning technology and people issues. According to Alhubaishy and Aljuhani (2021), elements relating to the cognition and behavior of teachers and students, fear of change and the limited access to learning resources hindered the transformation of schools. Therefore, it is important to create a smart learning environment with the investment of technology, infrastructure, equipment, and vision (Mogas et al., 2022) to improve digital literacy; to apply new technologies into learning environment to evolve the interaction and collaboration during learning process, and to share and deliver knowledge (Farias-Gaytan et al., 2021; Hashim et al., 2021; Reinius et al., 2021).
Smart learning was characterized as a new learning paradigm and played important roles in creating the learning environments effectively, and providing learners a convenient communication environment, and various learning and personalized contents. Molina-Carmona and Villagrá-Arnedo (2018) indicated that smart learning was the use of technologies to innovate and adapt the teaching and learning methods and to match learners’ characteristics to develop their learning styles and opportunities. Budhrani et al. (2018) clarified three main elements of smart learning pertaining to smart learning environment (i.e., learning technologies, learning service, communication and collaborative tools, infrastructure), smart pedagogies (i.e., the integration of technologies into teaching methods and learning strategies, evaluation strategies, feedback, learning outcome assessment), and smart learners (learners’ knowledge, skills and attitudes to adapt to the changes of technologies, desires of society, workplaces and daily life). Therefore, in order to boost the quality and effectiveness of educational outcomes, it is necessary for educational institutions to build up a learning ecosystem in digital environment to increase the interaction between components, and review factors affecting its development.
Laanpere et al. (2014) indicated that the interaction between components with users in an ecosystem helped analyze and design tools and services to improve learning performance. Digital learning ecosystem would develop actively in outside technical-social context through “participatory governance of its agents, where the temporally optimal structure and interaction of external and internal assets is achieved that creates challenging learning niches for the self-realization of its agents” (Jeladze et al., 2017, p. 33). This ecosystem could be used as a methodology to evaluate and improve the use of technological tools, learning experience, the interaction of students in online learning, and problems facing (Reyna, 2011). Besides, its development also helped educational institutions, students, teachers, and stakeholders provide and share learning tools and available resources; boost sustainable learning, and create learning experience through using learning equipment (Sarnok et al., 2019). Furthermore, it is useful for learners to control their time, place and learning style; to create opportunities in researching, showing their work, and to enhance relevant skills (e.g., information searching, communication, analysis and synthesis of data, teamwork, etc.) through using different technologies. However, the digital learning ecosystems includes various and complex components. Therefore, it is interesting to explore the relationships and interaction between factors relating to human, resources and the sociocultural context to meet education quality.
The development of digital technologies impacted the planning and vision of Thailand education. With the aim of becoming a “Smart Thailand,” it required the investment to improve technology infrastructure and people competence to gain the smart and knowledge-based society (Panjaburee & Srisawasdi, 2018). The values of lifelong learning have been emphasized. The Thailand citizens has given equal opportunities in education through digital technology (Ministry of Education, 2017). Along with that trend, educational institutions must know how to design curricula to adapt to national education policy and its necessary conditions to improve expected learning outcomes. The application of digital technologies and mobile devices in teaching and learning are increasingly development at Thailand high schools. Past studies indicated several learning approaches based on technologies, such as, mobile and ubiquitous learning (Panjaburee & Srisawasdi, 2018); online learning (Talimbekas & Arifani, 2022); blended e-learning (Wongwuttiwat et al., 2020); Internet and independent e-learning (Quigley, 2011); and digital learning (Satararuji & Samutachak, 2015). However, based on the standards of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the assessment results showed that the Thailand students’ science scores were lower than those average (OECD, 2018). Therefore, how to improve the teachers and learners’ competence at high schools in Thailand should be considered seriously.
Khon Kaen University (KKU) has a policy on academic services and technology transfer to the society in response to the national problems and accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (2015); SDG 4 Quality Education. KKU Smart Learning is one of the mentioned projects initiated in 2016 with the aims for utilization of research products of faculty members from multidiscipline related to learning and teaching development for area-based implementation. The project has its focus on the learning, teaching, and research which could be used for the development of students’ learning competencies at junior high school level. The research innovation on learning and teaching approach has been the significant results of the projects and proved to have had effective impact on students’ learning performances, such as Smart Learning Packages, Smart Teaching Packages, Smart Training Packages, and Smart Assessment Packages. From the academic year of 2017 to 2020, KKU Smart Learning Project has been implementing these innovations at 205 high schools in the Northeast of Thailand, of which 3,915 teachers and 72,300 students have been involved (Tuamsuk, 2019). Because the main concept of KKU Smart Learning is to reinforce the schools’ teachers to be able to transform the classroom into a learning community by implementing the course teaching in a digital learning environment, thus teaching practices of the schools’ teachers in the real situations can be very interesting issue for research. This study, therefore, sheds light on (1) exploring the teaching and learning activities and components of a digital learning ecosystem, (2) factors contributing the success for transforming classroom into learning community at high schools in Thailand.
Literature Review
Components of a Digital Learning Ecosystem
There are indications from previous research that the DLE included several components supporting and interacting together to get organization’s desired objectives.
According to Reyna (2011), a digital ecosystem consisted of (1) biotic component concerning the teaching and learning objects, and (2) abiotic component with the support of technology devices, the internet, e-learning and the content to transform information into knowledge through communication and collaborative tools, and in the whole chain of the learning process and utilities, and the learning environment within specific boundaries called learning environmental borders (Gütl & Chang, 2008). Meanwhile, a smart learning ecosystem of Benita et al. (2021, p. 13) centered on the use of Internet of Things to organize learning activities to evolve learners’ thinking and skills through “problem-based learning, collaborative learning, experiential learning, and gaming environments.” Besides this, key stakeholders played necessary roles in collaborating and efforts to ensure the success of ecosystem.
In addition, Põldoja (2016) designed an ecosystem based on the context of open education field. Learning stakeholders included three main objects, namely organizations (schools, funders, universities, publishers, educational policy organization, open internet organizations), people (e.g., students, teachers, researchers, life-long learners, teacher trainers, policy makers, content developers, etc.), and internet communities. Learning utilities were identified with three core areas, such as open educational resources, open learning environments, and open assessment arrangements.
Previous research also confirmed e-learning ecosystem was expressed via three categories of content providers (i.e., brand, custom, commodity), consultants (i.e., strategy, compensation, implementation, information technology), and infrastructure (i.e., learning management system, tools, content delivery system) (Lohmosavi et al., 2013; Uden et al., 2007). However, Markoska (2017) complemented other components in living things, for instance, teaching processes, and system administrators.
Suleimankadieva et al. (2021) pointed out that the development of a digital education ecosystem needed to ensure four main principles of interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, and holism of system, as well as improvement of learners’ cognition ability to solve complicated problems, work with and analyze amount of information and contents, and skills to design and evaluate other issues. Besides this, the design of a DLE needed to identify the adaptive and predictive ability for teachers and learners in the system to adapt to the new methods in educational activities (Wolff et al., 2021).
Based on the Engeström’s activity system theory for DLE services and the change in educational field at basic schools in Ghana, Quaicoe et al. (2016) mentioned five main components, namely, tools, subject, rules, community, and labor division. Following that, electricity, physical devices, teachers’ digital resources, ICT ability, training, and networking openings were important tools used in DLE. Rules consisted of the ethics of teachers, syllabuses, instruction, and evaluation standards. Subject and community comprised of teachers, supervisors, managers, students, parents, organizations, and government. Labor division was expressed through the roles of objects in community. However, an e-learning ecosystem of Eswari (2011) with six components emphasized various activities used to create and deliver contents and courses, as well as clarified the collaboration, assessment, learning environment and the interactions between multi-stakeholders to enhance the learning performance in digital environment.
Factors Influencing a Digital Learning Ecosystem
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been developed and applied in educational institutions to support to classroom management, delivery of contents, assessment and evaluation, and learning activities; therefore, the applications of AI in a DLE was considered as an important learning tool, especially in the pandemic context (Bhatnagar et al., 2021). In addition, competence was the core element on digital educational ecosystem. Thus, it is necessary to integrate and design educational resources, courses, programs, learning management system, infrastructure, etc. to improve its quality (Wolff et al., 2021).
Meanwhile, past studies indicated some intrinsic and extrinsic factors having influence the development of DLE, for instance, the design and security e-learning, infrastructure, technology solutions, policies, procedures (Eswari, 2011; Uden et al., 2007); learning resources and tools, pedagogical methods, learning duties and digital competence (Chang & Gütl, 2008; Põldoja, 2016; Väljataga et al., 2020); educational goals and policies, cultural and social factors, desires of society, competency framework and national curriculum (Chang & Gütl, 2008; Põldoja, 2016; Quaicoe et al., 2016).
According to Giattino and Stafford (2019), “without centralized governance, the various components of an ecosystem cannot maximize effectiveness and efficiency” (p. 318). The concepts of learning ecosystem consisted of diverse components, such as, different providers, organizational boundaries, learning stages and aspects, technologies, data and delivery. Therefore, creating a governance structure of a learning ecosystem and maintaining its flexibility to enable ownership of content, data, and development of tools in the learning community were essential (Giattino & Stafford, 2019).
Quantitative method was used to describe numbers and determine the correlation of two or more variables (Stockemer, 2018); whereas, qualitative research helped answer some questions more deeply based on perspectives, perceptions and feelings of participants (Gorman & Clayton, 2005). Therefore, to have pro-founding understanding of the nature of the teaching and learning for transforming classroom into learning community in a digital learning ecosystem and evaluate to what extent influence of factors in an ecosystem, the mixed method was conducted to gain research objectives. This study contributed to the deeply understanding of a learning ecosystem in the digital environment, the influence of elements to its development, and the features of DLE for high schools in Thailand under the KKU Smart Learning Project, then evolve an appropriate ecosystem.
Methods
This study was as the final part of a research project of digital learning ecosystem for transforming classroom into learning community: A case study of KKU Smart Learning Innovation. The mixed method was used to gain the research objectives with two following stages. The results of this paper were from both methods.
Stage 1: To Survey Factors Having Influence on the Success of Digital Learning Ecosystem
The quantitative methodology was used in this stage to explore the success factors for transforming classroom into learning community in the digital learning ecosystem.
Sampling and Instrument
This study focused on surveying teachers who teaching English, Science, and Mathematics subject in Grade 7, 8, and 9 at high schools. Those has been using the KKU Smart Learning Project at 20 provinces in Northeast Thailand. Random sampling was applied to collect data from respondents. The number of samples were conducted based on the Yamane’s (1973) sampling formula with errors set at 0.5.
Questionnaire was the research tool to clarify and measure the level of variables and widen the perspectives of respondents. The content of questions was designed relied on the analysis results of previous studies of factors influencing a digital learning ecosystem. The instrument structure included demographic information, and close-ended questions with five-level Likert scale to clarify eight main success factors, namely, policy, management, teacher, learner, learning support technologies, infrastructure, learning contents, and external factors. In addition, open-ended questions were also added in questionnaire to identify respondent’s ideas and perspectives of other elements impacted on a digital learning ecosystem.
To validate the reliability and validity, the questionnaire was translated from English into Thai language and evaluated by three experts of computer education and science education to get their feedback and recommendations for its contents and language. After that, a pilot study with 40 responded teachers was done. The Cronbach’s Alpha was checked and ensured that the research tool was highly reliable with values more than .9.
Data Collection and Analysis
The final version of questionnaire was delivered to participants between June and August 2021. As a result, 350 valid questionnaires were collected from respondents. Research data was analyzed by using the frequencies, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to clarify and assess influencing level of factors. As a result, five sub-factors in the policy, infrastructure, learning contents, and external factors were eliminated because the factor loading value was less than 0.5. The statistics results showed that learning technology was considered as the most important factor having the influence of the success of transforming classrooms into learning communities with
Stage 2: Identify the Teaching and Learning Activities and Components of a Digital Learning Ecosystem
Researchers used two data collection techniques including observation and interview to discover participants’ perceptions, views, and feelings. This stage used the same qualitative method with the previous study (Nguyen et al., 2022) in a different aspect.
Sampling, Instruments and Data collection
Interviews
Semi-structured interviews relied on the interview protocol were carried out to get data pertaining to teaching and learning process at classroom, and main components of digital learning ecosystem. The interview questions were designed from reviewing previous studies of teaching and learning processes and digital learning ecosystem, then were validated by three experts. The interviews were conducted for teachers of three subjects (namely, English, Mathematics, Science) from Grade 7 to 9. At each level, two teachers of every subject were chosen to be interviewed based on their willingness. Consequently, 18 teachers at three schools joined in in-depth interviews between August and November 2021. Chosen schools in Khon Kaen Province have participated in the Smart Learning Project from the beginning for 3 years. They were the first group of schools of this project.
Observation
In order to gain the research objective concerning the understanding of how teacher manage their classroom teaching in the digital learning environment and components of digital learning ecosystem, unobtrusive observation was done. In the light of this, the observation scenario was designed for data collection. The observation process took placeat the classroom of high schools in Northeast Thailand. As a result, teaching and learning activities in six teaching classrooms were observed, described, note taken and explained.
The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and reviewed by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand (Ref. No. HE643113, Approval date: August 18, 2021).
Data Analysis
Data analysis, synthesis, and explanation techniques were used to check and evaluate the quality of collected data, then analyzed and expressed the feelings, views, opinions of respondents on how teachers manage their teaching in digital environment, and using the components of digital learning ecosystem in educational activities. The similarity and difference of informants’ perspectives were explained and reported in research findings. The collected data from interviews and observations were gathered and coded manually following the teaching and learning activities to identify the characteristics of digital learning ecosystem. In consequence, there are seven themes were coded to design a DLE: (1) learning and teaching activities, (2) learning contents, (3) technologies, (4) infrastructure, (5) the interaction and roles of stakeholders, (6) learning atmosphere, (7) the development of learners’ thinking ability.
Findings and Discussion
Digital Learning Ecosystem for High Schools in Thailand
Relied on the research results, the digital learning ecosystem model was designed with four main parts, namely, learning community, learning atmosphere, active learning, and teaching and learning support (Figure 1). The detail of components is mentioned as follows:
Digital learning ecosystem model for junior high schools in Thailand.
Learning Community
According to Tseng (2020), learning community is relatively complex including various elements that influence the learning motivation and achievement of students. A learning community is informed when a number of people work and interact together for mutual learning to meet learning needs and get learning objectives (Liu et al., 2010). Therefore, the learning community of high schools under the KKU Smart Learning Project consists of group of people (i.e., teachers, students, peers, and supporters) who take responsibilities in teaching and learning process, sharing educational goals, collaborating and interacting together to gain common objectives and learning achievement.
(1) Teachers take responsibilities in organizing teaching activities in their classroom. Teaching processes have been deployed as follows (Nguyen et al., 2022):
• Teaching preparation. In order to carrying out well teaching activities, teachers prepared instruction using technologies, checked the readiness of tools and equipment, and prepared the teaching sets.
• Deploying teaching activities. Teachers used technologies in their instruction, creating learning atmosphere in the classroom and arranging learning activities through active learning approaches. They checked the knowledge levels of students before teaching and to compare learning outcomes through a test or games; used and combined many teaching methods designed to transfer knowledge to learners. There are some approaches conducted to create a comfy environment for learning and promote students’ thinking ability (i.e., doing the experiments; teamwork, discussion, presentation, video-making, questioning and answering) and promoted students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes by playing games or quiz test, using videos and digital media to create a comfortable atmosphere and interests for students to join in lessons. A mathematics teacher said:
…I will focus on the teamwork method to help students discuss with their peers by creating a problematic situation to develop their problem-solving thinking, and communication skills. Then, students will present their teamwork results… After that, I will explain and give some recommendations for them.
• Reflect the learning outcomes and assess the expected learning competencies of students. A variety of ways were used to measure and compare the students’ learning performance, for instance, pre-test and post-test by using Google form; playing games via Kahoot/Quiz; students’ presentation, feedback, knowledge summary by mind mapping, questioning and answering.
After lecturing, students are requested to complete a test through a link using the Google Form… Then, we can get the students’ answers in Google Sheet… Sometimes, assessments could carry out through quizzes or fun games and help learners think mathematically (A science teacher mentioned)
• Managing students’ self-learning. After learning time, if students have homework, and assignments, they can do and upload on the Google Classroom or send them to teacher in Line Group or Messenger.
(2) Students It is important for students to prepare the learning sets obtained from KKU Smart Learning, tools and equipment for learning, and the readiness of students concerning the learning spirit and learning motivation. Then, they learn the content of the lessons, and participate in learning activities under the teacher’s direction (i.e., doing experiments, teamwork, discussion, presentation, doing assignments and homework) by using learning contents and technology platforms and tools to access to websites, platforms, applications and to create new ideas. Furthermore, they are motivated to use smart phones to play games, quiz, search for information, and make video clips, or study of their own from the knowledge source and application of KKU Smart Learning.
(3) Peers take part in teachers’ peers in KKU Smart Learning community to share and exchange knowledge, problems and experiences in instruction at all times.
(4) Supporters are a research team of KKU Smart Learning (i.e., administrators, education supervisors, etc.) who take roles to give advice, solve problems and support in terms of infrastructure, administration.
As can be seen that the interaction between components in the DLE is a necessary condition to develop the communication and cooperation between objects to boost the sustainable development of educational performance in schools. There are some inside interactions learning community:
(1) Teacher-Teacher: Teachers often have the meeting before and after teaching to discuss and share knowledge of subject, skills and teaching methods to prepare, organize and take away hands-on experience of teaching and learning activities. Meanwhile, computer teachers not only carry out teaching activities, but also support and guide relevant problems of technology, internet connection, platforms, and applications for other teachers.
(2) Teacher-Students: Teacher interacts and communicates with students to transfer knowledge through lessons, assignments, homework, experiment, games; teamwork, discussion, and presentation activities in classroom, etc. In addition, they also apply technology and digital devices to promote learners playing games, creating ideas and videos to boost their learning motivation.
(3) Students-Students: Students interact each other to exchange and share ideas, learning contents, digital devices, and learning resources. Besides, they also carry out common learning activities to create new products and ideas during learning process.
(4) Teacher-Supporters: Teachers could interact with supporters of interrelated issues of learning contents, technologies, training, test and examination, and administrative procedures, etc.
Among the interactions of objects inside learning community, it is interesting to indicate that the student-student and teacher-student are the most important interactions in schools which promote the quality and effectiveness of educational activities. These results are similar to those reported by Reyna (2011), who noted that in all interactions, student-student interaction played the most important roles based on the online collaboration perspective.
These results seem to support the evaluation of past research confirmed that learning community was considered as a combination of learning in communicating and sharing ideas, understanding, goals experiences, respecting and accepting each other opinions, cooperating to solve problems, building learning motivations, and guiding learning process (Mitchell, 2001; Syatriana & Sakkir, 2020). It would be developed and effective if teachers and students have interaction and collaboration to get learning outcomes (Syatriana & Sakkir, 2020). Besides, three most important elements in learning community concerning (1) the ensure of learning environment for students, for example, which students want to learn, when, and ways to solve problem during learning time, (2) building a collaborative environment to remove barriers and get common goals; and (3) improving students’ learning achievement (DuFour, 2004).
Therefore, in order to create a professional learning community, it is importance for stakeholders to join in “creating a mission statement, developing a vision, developing value statements, and establishing goals” (Lunenburg, 2010, p. 6). The design of learning community must be ensured that participants could participate in sharing educational ideas, perspectives, objectives, as well as collaborating, supporting and building trust to enhance the effectiveness of processes and activate functions in this community (Shea, 2006). Another important feature in the online learning community was to clarify and diversify media platforms and the cooperation of tools (i.e., management, meeting, mentoring, documents, evaluation in online environment), and consider learners’ needs and characteristics to design appropriate online courses, as well as create a collaborative environment to access and share information (Karo & Petsangsri, 2021; Rovai, 2002).
Learning Atmosphere
Learning atmosphere is one of the important elements to boost learners’ learning motivations and attitudes, then develop learners’ competence. If students join in a comfortable and funny learning atmosphere, they could develop their creative thinking, problem-solving, and analytical thinking through active learning activities designed.
In order to create an enjoyable learning atmosphere, teachers and other interrelated supporters at secondary schools in Thailand designed learning activities and applied appropriate teaching methods to boost learners’ interests in learning by:
• Giving opportunities for students to communicate, express their opinions, have and answer questions, get more information by searching on the internet and providing information channels to link to lessons. A mathematics teacher said that “… teachers need to help students feel that they are playing with certain situations to make themselves happy and accept mathematics by finding examples of their daily life to connect with the lesson, and exchanging the knowledge with friends.”
• The atmosphere in the classrooms for seventh grade to the ninth grade graders, who are 13 to 15 years should not be formal and must provide comfort, fun, flexibility (not fixed to any one form) and allows students to think and talk freely. Thus, teachers encouraged students use technology and smart phones to search, learn and create new ideas, or record video clips; as well as join in teamwork, group discussion, and presentation activities to enhance communication and interaction ability.
…The learning atmosphere is the most important element because we meet 8 hours per day… If students are not interested in learning, they do not pay attention to learn; this means that teacher’s teaching is not successful… Thus, teachers have to adjust and change learning atmosphere, create an enjoyment atmosphere all time so that students can follow all time, and really like to go to school… (An English teacher emphasized)
• Giving compliment for students when answering and appreciating their answers. If students don’t want to talk face-to-face, they can share their opinions by using smartphones or paper. Students do not like straightforward challenges, such as, picking someone to talk or to show opinion. Rather, they prefer messaging, joining in answering questions and anonymous competition in the class. Therefore, technology is an important tool that stimulates learning according to their learning style.
• Giving situations in classroom that close to students or use relevant videos, media, and help students link their knowledge with their daily life.
Most teachers confirmed that the most important thing of teaching process is use the media, videos, games in order to get students’ attention, increase the support, collaboration and interaction to create a common understanding of content, and to make students’ learning more interestingly, creatively, and effectively. The availability of well-equipped classrooms also plays important roles in improving the atmosphere of the classroom. Besides, another element concerning the well-rounded understanding of learners’ characteristics would support teachers to design educational activities to create a positive environment and enhance competence and achievement of students. Thus, the learning atmosphere must be adapted to help students focus on learning all time and to make them know that they are important. In addition, learning climate in classroom is flexible and funny to help students feel happy and easy to learn, and share their ideas, opinions and are encouraged to join in learning process.
The previous results highlighted that the understanding of learners, the organization and evaluation of teaching and learning activities are necessary requirements to form a learning atmosphere. Schools need to set up rules, regulations, guidelines, and procedure to navigate and create an academic atmosphere (Wiranto et al., 2021). Students would get higher learning achievement, if they were participated in a good learning atmosphere. Teachers could use different teaching style based on the topics and situations and encourage learner join in learning activities. Moreover, the establishment of good partnerships (i.e., students-students, students-teachers) in the classroom could help students focusing on their learning, completing their duties on time and know what they do (Jumiansyah et al., 2019). “Communication and active participation were effective by making a democratic, enjoyable and colorful atmosphere among students and between students and teacher” (Kalem & Fer, 2003, p. 2). Jordanov (2014) emphasized indispensable roles of teacher in creating good classroom atmosphere. Following that, teachers need to enhance their competence to organize classroom and teaching activities to increase the cooperation and collaboration between students, encourage group work and use modern technology during teaching process.
Active Learning
The active learning is boosted by using technologies to design of teaching contents and methods, and collaborative learning instruction to develop students’ skills. The skills specifically emphasized in KKU Smart Learning (as they correspond to PISA test and the future skills) are creative thinking, problem solving, and analytical thinking. As a result, there are a variety of teaching and learning activities conducted in order to improve students’ thinking:
Designing lessons, assignments, and games/quizzes which apply technology, applications, learning contents of KKUSL to motivate learning, attention, and thinking ability;
Learning activities were designed by giving more hands-on examples, close to daily life of students to solve problems and to stimulate students’ creative thinking;
Organizing student-centered teaching activities by encouraging students share what they want to do, present their knowledge about issues, what they want to be; then teachers would focus on those issues for students to practice and improve their understanding of topics through using video, media, websites, and Google platforms;
Encouraging students’ active learning roles to in learning process, for example, joining in communication, thinking and using their knowledge to solve problems in daily life; writing, talking, reflecting and practicing, searching, synthesizing, or summarizing information. For instance, (1) in English course, students can be asked to use technology to build their own profile, introduce their family, make a school map; (2) in Mathematics, they can build a game that links to problems, such as, shape, quantity, volume, distance; and (3) in Science, they may use Stimulate lab or Detective game that requires students to use scientific process in analyzing and solving problems;
If the students have practiced many skills, teacher would give opportunities for student to practice as much as possible; talk, exchange, and draw conclusions of learning topics;
Developing students’ information searching and processing skills through questions;
Encouraging student manage their group to divide the duties for members, discuss and present results together to enhance their teamwork and coordination skills.
…I will help students to develop analytical and synthesized thinking in learning to improve basic learning so that they can study a higher level easily in the future (A science teacher) The learning activities are organized in an active learning format… Students participate in learning activities, such as, self-learning, group discussion…Teachers provide problematic situation, then students can discuss and express opinions with their peers… These learning ways will help enhance learners’ critical thinking… (A mathematics teacher)
The findings correlated with those of Giannakos et al. (2016), who determined that a learning ecosystem helped develop the active learning method and have pro-founding understanding, and enhance teaching methods to promote learners’ motivation and needs. Besides this, “active learning engages students in the process of learning through activities and/or discussion in class, as opposed to passively listening to an expert. It emphasized higher-order thinking and often involves group work” (Freeman et al., 2014, p. 8413). By applying six different active learning styles in the classroom, the study of Bromley (2013) indicated that students have different and various preference in learning activities, of which large group discussion was a dominant learning technique of most students. Other prominent findings of Kalem and Fer (2003) also noted that the active learning model enhanced the students’ ability in gathering information and knowledge, self-directing their learning, improving comprehension and knowledge acquisition, and developing creative and effective learning skills (Nelson & Crow, 2014). According to Daouk et al. (2016), students improved their active roles in classroom, communication, discussion, presentation and written skills, and learning performance, and had pro-founding understandings of material contents through active learning strategies.
Teaching and Learning Support
Teaching and learning support component (i.e., learning support technology, learning contents, infrastructure, and administration) is considered as necessary elements to support to other parts in model; for example, learning community uses technology, learning contents, infrastructure, and administration to organize and manage educational process; besides, designing and creating an active learning environment or learning atmosphere also needs the support of technology, learning contents, infrastructure, and administration.
Learning support technology. There are various technologies used to support to learning and correspond to the lesson contents and the expected learning outcomes; for instance, media with contents and activities in the form of video clips, audios, simulation lab, digital images, games, drawing tools, writing tools, quizzes, etc.; technologies that assist teaching and classroom management, such as, Google Classroom, Google Meet, Zoom, assignment tools, testing tools; and technologies that support media production, reporting software, and communication.
Learning contents: the lessons have been designed to match the learning and are different from other textbooks in general. Other knowledge sources where students can acquire more information are introduced.
Infrastructure. This emphasizes the technological infrastructure, such as, internet, classrooms with adequate facilities (i.e., electrical system, sound system, teaching aids, library, laboratories, etc.) with at least the minimum standard for a smart classroom.
Administration. This is the management process that supports teaching, such as, teacher training, teacher manual, advice or consultation, communication/coordination, and administration of tests and evaluation.
Previous studies mentioned that technology and media played important roles in transferring contents, stories, and supporting the use, communication, and cooperation processes (Eswari, 2011; Sarnok et al., 2019). Laanpere et al. (2014) showed that tech-based learning system were tools and platforms support teaching and learning activities to help teachers carry out appropriate teaching methods. Accordingly, a DLE could not maintain the sustainable and successful development if it lacks the support of infrastructure in storing, delivering, instructing, using, and accessing in systems (Dong et al., 2009; Leong & Miao, 2008; Reyna, 2011). Furthermore, learning tools and resources must be delivered and shared between stakeholders to ensure the knowledge exchange and transfer process (Ali et al., 2017; Sarnok et al., 2019). Meanwhile, the governance was important for educational institutions to enhance and manage policies, procedures, and the right of decision and boost the effectiveness of the DLE (Chang & Uden, 2008; Giattino & Stafford, 2019). Chang and Uden (2008) also revealed four key factors needed to be considered and improved in ecosystem including structures, processes, mechanisms of communication and relationships, and the designs of pedagogy and instruction.
It is interesting to say that the DLE of high schools in Thailand emphasized the roles and interaction of learning community to design, organize and manage the appropriate teaching and learning activities, and to promote students’ competence (i.e., creative thinking, problem-solving, analytical thinking) through active learning techniques. Besides, the understanding of the learners’ characteristics was also centered on evolving their motivation and needs through creating a comfortable, enjoyable and happy learning atmosphere. Meanwhile, other models just emphasized the development and use of technology to enhance the interaction between biotic and abiotic components and to develop the process of transformation of information into knowledge, and factors having influence the learning ecosystem (Chang & Gütl, 2008; Laanpere et al., 2014; Reyna, 2011); delivering effectively and rapidly knowledge to enhance the learning performance (Ali et al., 2017). In addition, Allen et al. (2020) designed a model of STEM learning ecosystem community of practice for afterschool to form, evolve, acts, and maintain stability by boosting the powerful relationships with schools, businesses, providers, funders, and organizations to invest in quality standards, data systems, and measurements.
In other words, the prominent findings of other models also centered on designing an ecosystem to develop knowledge and digital intelligence for teacher profession students (Sarnok et al., 2020); roles of architecture and mechanisms to ensure and enhance the educational quality (Dong et al., 2009); learning environment and interaction to improve learning achievement (Eswari, 2011); motivation, perception, and academic achievement of students in the ecosystem (Davidson et al., 2019); and the design of programs, partnerships, technical architecture, and learning outcomes (Benita et al., 2021).
Factors Leading to the Success of the Digital Learning Ecosystem
A digital learning ecosystem for high schools in Thailand need to ensure four components concerning the learning community, learning atmosphere, active learning and the support of technology, learning contents, infrastructure and administration for teaching and learning activities. However, in order to maintain the stability of this ecosystem, it is important for schools to consider enablers and barriers to maximize key factors leading the success of classroom transformation into learning community in a digital learning ecosystem.
The analyzing results of quantitative data revealed seven main factors influencing the success of digital learning ecosystem. It is considered that internal factors, such as, technologies, teachers and learners are the utmost important enablers affecting on this ecosystem. Therefore, schools should identify and invest necessary conditions to enable to promote the educational quality and effectiveness, and sustainable development of DLE.
Policy and Management
The surveying results showed that schools should have policies and formulate strategies to promote for teaching and learning in the digital learning ecosystem.
In terms of management, schools need to have a systematic process for supervising and monitoring the results of teaching and learning, define the roles and duties of the various departments, have rules and channels for exchanging knowledge to support meetings, receive comments, and solve teaching and learning problems. Besides, clear guidelines (i.e., content management, teaching methods, learning activities, using digital technology to promote learning), and criteria or indicators for assessing the quality of teaching and learning should be set up and adopted at these schools (Chang & Uden, 2008; Eswari, 2011; Giattino & Stafford, 2019; Põldoja, 2016).
Learning Support Technology
It is critical for schools to design learning support technology to be easy to use and consistent with the teachers’ and students’ capabilities, and secure in terms of information and can be accessed anytime and anywhere. In addition, applications and learning support materials must be designed for each course’s topic that teachers can use for teaching and learners can self-study in the DLE. Classroom and meeting management tools, digital learning platforms and communication tools should also be used to manage teaching, encourage interactive learning and discussion, and develop collaborative relationships in the DLE (Budnyk et al., 2021; Mashau & Nyawo, 2021; Uden et al., 2007; Väljataga et al., 2020).
Learning Contents
Learning contents must be designed to stimulate learners’ digital knowledge and skills, and presented in line with the teachers and learners’ ability. In addition, the quality of learning content in the DLE is carefully filtered, selected, and assessed before being used in teaching, and sufficient quantity for students to learn and access easily (Erkens & Bodemer, 2019; Sridharan et al., 2010).
Infrastructure
Schools should invest the stable and convenient internet system and could be accessed quickly; develop technologies and applications that facilitate the storage, use, and management of information and equip teaching support equipment, digital devices and a variety of other facilities to support the teaching and learning (Raghunath et al., 2018; Sethy & Mohalik, 2019; Yang et al., 2018).
Teachers
The findings indicated that teachers should be knowledgeable in a variety of teaching subject and methods, digital literacy, the understanding of learners and characteristics of digital learning ecosystem to organize and manage teaching activities properly. In this regard, schools should provide opportunities for teachers to improve their competence by joining in training programs, educational events, workshops, or self-studying (Kumar & Bharti, 2020; Pit-ten Cate et al., 2018; Väljataga et al., 2020; Vaseghi et al., 2012).
Learners
It can be considered that the learning motivation and outcomes primarily depend on the teaching methods, teaching organization ways, learning contents, and learning assessment. These requirements acquire schools must design quality curriculum, invest infrastructure, and organize appropriate teaching processes. Moreover, teachers need to design lessons, assignments and learning activities which could boost learners’ motivation, attitudes, skills, knowledge, and self-learning (Chang & Gütl, 2008; Dashtestani & Hojatpanah, 2022; Oh et al., 2018; Yates et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2021).
External Factors
Schools should base on the national educational policies, objectives, and curriculum to better orientate and create school education strategies, and design and develop the school curriculum. Furthermore, social needs and competency frameworks should be surveyed and identified to develop learners’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and improve their educational quality and efficiency (Allen et al., 2020; Chang & Gütl, 2008; Põldoja, 2016; Quaicoe et al., 2016).
Conclusion
The development of a digital learning ecosystem at high schools in Thailand facilitates to manage and improve the effectiveness of the interaction, collaboration, and learning performance. A sustainable digital learning ecosystem should have the support of technologies, infrastructure, contents, and administration to create a learning community, learning atmosphere and evolve active learning to enhance the learners’ thinking abilities. However, the elements influencing the success of this ecosystem must be considered to remove barriers and maximize enablers. Thus, this paper is useful for secondary schools under the KKU Smart Learning Project to understand the characteristics of this ecosystem and to prepare appropriate conditions for teaching and learning processes. In addition, the findings also help policy makers, educators, and teachers to issue educational policies and objectives, invest infrastructure, design curriculum, and organize teaching activities to enhance the effectiveness of learning outcomes.
There are some limitations and recommendations of this research as follows:
(1) Learning support technologies are indispensable tools in teaching and learning process in digital learning environments; thus, next research should focus on designing, using and developing learning systems, and platforms to boost learning motivation and effectiveness for learners;
(2) How to develop and integrate digital learning contents into learning management system should be clarified;
(3) The teachers’ competence in digital learning must be evaluated to know to what extent knowledge and skills they get, then suggest solutions to improve their ability.
(4) To what extent do learners get their learning performance after using KKU Smart Learning Project?
(5) This study focused on designing a digital learning ecosystem and success factors for classroom transformation into learning community at secondary schools under the KKU Smart Learning Project, and cannot cover all context of schools in Thailand. Thus, it is necessary for future research to survey the context, characteristics of different school-level, then compare and design an appropriate model for promoting learning performance in digital environment.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
This research paper is financially support by the Program Unit for Human Resources & Institutional Development (PMU-B), Office of National Higher Education Science Research and Innovation Policy Council, Thailand.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Ethical Statement
The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and reviewed by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand (Ref. No. HE643113, Approval date: August 18, 2021).
