Search Results (14)

This article examines the Integrevise^TM platform through a repeated cross-sectional, multi-cycle pilot case study of viva-based verification in AI-mediated assessment environments. Integrevise^TM pairs a submitted written artifact with a short adaptive viva in which students explain their work, reasoning, and application in their own words. Rather than functioning as an AI detector or automated grading system, the platform operates as a diagnostic assessment layer intended to surface comprehension, authorship confidence, and disengagement risk before final grades become the only available signal. The pilot was conducted across Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 at a private liberal arts college in the Midwest; these phases involved different student groups and are therefore treated as iterative implementation cycles rather than a longitudinal cohort. Results should be interpreted as preliminary pilot evidence. In Spring 2026, 52 vivas were completed, but formal student survey data were limited to seven respondents and showed mixed perceptions: only 14.3% agreed that the oral assessment helped them think more deeply about the assignment, whereas 57.1% disagreed or strongly disagreed. Platform feedback was also incomplete, with 20 of 52 vivas (38.5%) producing no student feedback record. Qualitative feedback, tutor observations, and implementation notes nevertheless suggest that viva-based verification may help identify some comprehension gaps and implementation barriers that written artifacts alone may not reveal. The findings, therefore, support continued investigation of Integrevise^TM as a process-rich assessment intervention, but not broad claims of efficacy or scalability without larger, more systematic validation. Full article

Private tutoring has become an increasingly popular approach for improving academic performance by providing individual or group support outside regular school hours to enhance student outcomes. In the context of mathematics tutoring, we introduce the eMath4All platform, designed to replicate traditional teaching methods through virtual tools for distance learning. Despite the growing prevalence of private tutoring, research on online tutoring platforms and their use in practice remains limited. Accordingly, this study explores the application of the eMath4All platform in two different private tutoring scenarios involving secondary school students from Romania. Study A examines group tutoring with five eighth-grade students preparing for a national examination over a three-month period, while Study B explores individual tutoring with ten students from various secondary education levels over a 12-month period. The paper analyzes how the key components of the eMath4All platform (such as the virtual whiteboard, mathematical editor, real-time audio–video communication, virtual library, assessment tool, and personal student profile) support tutoring activities. The platform is examined through a combination of platform usage data, descriptive analysis of student progression, and student-reported experience collected via questionnaires. The results of the exploratory study indicate consistent usage patterns, high engagement with platform features, and high usability ratings, highlighting the platform’s potential for supporting both individual and group mathematics tutoring. Full article

Out-of-school tutoring, as a form of privatized compensatory education beyond formal schooling, has become increasingly prevalent, yet its role in fostering students’ holistic competencies remains insufficiently examined. Drawing on a student engagement perspective, this study investigates how different types of out-of-school tutoring, including academic, arts, and sports tutoring, are associated with the development of students’ holistic competencies. Data were drawn from a survey of 704 Grade 10 students in central China. Tutoring engagement during junior secondary school was measured using a self-developed Likert-scale instrument, while holistic competencies were obtained from official Comprehensive Quality Assessment records. The findings reveal differentiated effects across tutoring types. Academic tutoring shows no significant association with academic performance or other dimensions of holistic competence. In contrast, sports tutoring is positively associated with physical and mental health, and arts tutoring demonstrates a significant positive relationship with artistic literacy. Regarding engagement characteristics, simply increasing the number of programs or financial investment yields limited benefits. Instead, time investment and cognitive involvement in sports tutoring, as well as affective involvement in arts tutoring, are positively related to specific dimensions of holistic competence. These results suggest that the effectiveness of out-of-school tutoring depends less on participation amount and more on the nature of students’ engagement. The study highlights the uneven developmental returns of compensatory education and calls for a more balanced and development-oriented approach to tutoring participation. Full article

Background: This exploratory study investigates whether STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students’ increasing reliance on off-campus resources (e.g., online platforms, private tutors) reflects an authentic preference for autonomous learning or a compensatory response to perceived deficiencies in on-campus instruction. Methodology: Using a mixed-methods design, data were collected from 118 engineering and science students. A model was developed to examine the relationship between the intensity of student criticism and their declared preference for off-campus learning. Findings: The model revealed a significant negative relationship between the intensity of criticism and the preference for off-campus instruction. This suggests that for highly critical students, external resources function primarily as a compensatory mechanism for “needs frustration” rather than a preferred alternative. The results imply that these students continue to value the frontal model but find its current implementation insufficient to meet their pedagogical needs. Conclusion: These findings challenge the assumption that digital trends signify a voluntary abandonment of the classroom. Instead, reliance on external resources is positioned as a reactive, compensatory strategy. Higher education institutions should prioritize revitalizing frontal instruction through enhanced clarity and focus to reduce dependency on off-campus platforms and restore the value of the campus experience. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly transforming higher education, evolving from simple personalization tools into a wide range of applications that support teaching, learning, and assessment. This study examines how university instructors in Lebanon perceive and adopt AI in their academic practices, drawing on evidence from two private institutions: Notre Dame University–Louaize (NDU) and the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK). The study also proposes practical directions for effective institutional implementation. Using a cross-sectional design and convenience sampling, data were collected from 133 faculty members. Although 73.7% of participants reported moderate to high familiarity with AI, their actual classroom use of such tools remained limited. Adoption was primarily centered on chatbots (69.2%) and translation tools (54.9%), while more advanced technologies, such as adaptive learning systems and AI-based tutoring platforms, were seldom utilized (under 7%). Additionally, participants identified efficiency (69.2%), increased student engagement (44.4%), and personalized learning opportunities (42.9%) as the main benefits of AI integration. In contrast, they reported insufficient training (46.6%), restricted access to resources (45.9%), and concerns about the accuracy of AI-generated outputs (29.3%) as major barriers. Moreover, statistical analysis indicated a strong positive relationship between familiarity with AI and frequency of adoption, with no significant differences across gender, age, or academic qualifications. Overall, the results suggest that faculty members in Lebanese higher education currently view AI primarily as a helpful tool for improving efficiency rather than as a transformative pedagogical innovation. To advance integration, higher education institutions should prioritize targeted professional development, ensure equitable access to AI tools, and establish transparent ethical and governance frameworks. Full article

Case study to investigate whether creative writing through story-based learning in public and private secondary schools can account for performance in readability, purpose, word/sentence relationships, vocabulary diversity, correct use of punctuation marks and proper use of spelling rules. The exclusion criteria, applied only to public and private secondary school students, first, second and third periods. The sampling is convenient as the participants were selected from accessible educational institutions. This is a cross-sectional study of descriptive qualitative cut in which the coding of linguistic patterns and dominant themes is used. When triangulated with statistical results it was found that despite the variability in the results there was a production of original narratives, which corroborates the theories about the relationship between creativity and divergent thinking. It is confirmed that ABH is an active methodology based on the emotional link with creative writing from which components of the structure and creation of the narrative are derived, and it was found that most of the students are in a zone of proximal development, i.e., they are ready to learn with the help of a tutor or more advanced partner. Full article

Private supplementary tutoring (PST) is a flourishing market for edupreneurs whose services relate closely to mainstream education. While international research elaborates on geographical variations in PST and edupreneurs’ marketing strategies, the PST market in Switzerland has been largely understudied. This paper contributes to fill this research gap by presenting a thematic analysis of the websites of edupreneurs offering preparation programmes for the highly selective central entrance examination (CEE) to the academically focused public school track of Gymnasium in Zurich. Conceptually, we draw on “problematization” and “commodificiation” as key terms elaborated by “geographies of marketization”. With this performative conceptualisation of the education market, we examine the marketing strategies of the edupreneurs offering CEE preparation courses. We offer two contributions to the existing research. First, the analysis elaborates that private CEE preparation courses are advertised as a market solution that compensates for an omission caused by public education. Second, we show how edupreneurs use rational and emotional arguments to convince families of the need of booking CEE preparation courses for their children. In the discussion, we engage with the findings of our local case study and argue that selective educational transitions have much wider relevance for policy and society elsewhere. Full article

This paper studies households’ expenditure on the education of children in China’s cities to assess how internal migrant families’ investment in the human capital of their offspring differs from that of local urban families. The private education-related expenditure reflects both households’ willingness to invest in human capital and institutional constraints, as China’s household registration (hukou) system prevents children without a local city hukou from enrolling in urban public schools. In-school fees (consisting of statutory tuition and institutional tuition fees) are commonly topped-up with substantial private tutoring expenditure. We apply multiple regression to the 2008 “Rural–Urban Migration Survey in China” data to analyze the average expenditure differences between temporary migrants, permanent migrants and locals. The findings are, after controlling for social and economic characteristics, that: (1) the overall spending on education of migrant households overwhelmingly exceeds that of locals, which is expected since migrants must finance privately all education-related expenses their children incur; (2) migrant households spend more on institutional tuition fees compared to households with a local city hukou, reflecting the varying severity of administrative hurdles faced by families; and (3) temporary migrants spend more on institutional tuition fees than permanent migrant households, but less in private tutoring. Full article

Anthelmintic resistance has been documented worldwide, but few cases have been reported in dogs. Shelter dogs are a great opportunity to study intestinal helminths and assess their potential resistance to anthelmintic compounds. With these two goals in mind, 361 faecal samples were collected from dogs in 18 municipalities in Portugal, from 19 shelters and 11 private tutors. These samples were analysed using the Mini-FLOTAC before and 13 days after deworming. The percentage of faecal egg count reduction was calculated. Parasitic forms were identified in 22.4% of the samples collected: Trichuris vulpis (10.5%), Toxocara canis (8.0%), members of the family Ancylostomatidae (6.4%), Toxascaris leonina (0.8%), Dipylidium caninum (0.6%) and members of the family Taeniidae (0.3%). The first three nematode parasites showed the highest intensity of infection (2900, 1325, and 1265 eggs per gram, respectively). In the second faecal collection, parasites were present in 20.8% of the samples. The anthelmintics febendazole + pyrantel embonate + praziquantel and praziquantel + fenbendazole were ineffective for T. vulpis and members of the family Ancylostomatidae in 16.2% and 6.9% of the samples, respectively. The parasites identified are all potentially zoonotic. This study is the first to suggest a potential resistance of T. vulpis to anthelmintics. Full article

In the context of public administrations after COVID-19, this paper formulates and validates a digital model of tutoring (e-tutoring) for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by public administrations or PAs to help the former reduce their risks to fold in their first few years of existence and with the support of private professionals (economists, accountants, business advisors, managers, etc.). The model draws on ideas about relational administration (RA), a concept that is yet to be fully exploited or assessed in the literature. Several hypotheses derived from the model are formulated and tested using a polytomic-nominal logistic regression. A questionnaire was sent to and returned by 236 small and medium entrepreneurs in Spain facing insolvency proceedings to identify main reasons for business failure and if or how they would accept online tutoring from private professionals associated with PAs. Findings suggest that SM entrepreneurs agree with receiving selected forms of tutoring, requiring public administrations to enhance capabilities for joint information provision and decision making through the use of information and communication technologies or ICTs. These findings have important implications for the potential restructuring of public administrations, their collaborations with professionals, and the future co-design and implementation of e-government services by PAs Full article

Objective: In recent decades, there has been a marked increase in private tutoring and a decline in sleep health among adolescents. This study aimed to outline the association between time spent on private tutoring and sleep patterns of Chinese adolescents. Methods: Participants were from a nationwide two-wave panel survey. We performed OLS regressions of sleep duration at wave 2 and Poisson regressions of sleep problems at wave 2 on tutoring time at wave 2, adjusting for baseline sleep duration and other covariates. Tutoring time was assessed by three items: daily hours of tutoring, daily hours of tutoring on weekdays, and daily hours of tutoring on weekends. Results: Overall, more time spent on private tutoring was associated with shorter sleep duration and more sleep problems. Furthermore, both weekday and weekend tutoring can have a positive effect on the number of sleep problems. With regard to sleep duration, weekend tutoring time played a negative role, while the effect of weekday tutoring time was negligible. Conclusion: In the Chinese context, which is characterized by intense academic competition, participation in private tutoring plays a significant role in shaping students’ sleep duration and sleep problems. To improve the sleep health of adolescents, the time spent on private tutoring should be carefully monitored and regulated. Full article

UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 states that “Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development.” The sustainable well-being of college teachers deserves attention. Currently, college teachers in China are facing enormous challenges and pressures, which may increase their emotional exhaustion (EE) and hinder the sustainable development of their well-being (WB). Therefore, this study examined Chinese college teachers’ well-being in relation to their work-life balance (WLB) and EE. An online survey was conducted. The valid subjects included 586 college teachers (367 females, 62.6%). We assessed their WLB, EE, and WB. The results revealed that among the Chinese college teachers, (1) WLB was negatively correlated with EE, but positively correlated with WB; EE was negatively correlated with WB; (2) EE partially mediated the relationship between WLB and WB; and (3) College teachers who are male, class tutors, and in public colleges scored higher on EE and lower on WLB and WB than those who are female, non-class tutors, and in private colleges, respectively. The findings indicated that WLB is an important factor for the sustainable development of the well-being of college teachers, and special attention should be paid to college teachers who are male, class tutors, and in public colleges in China. Full article

In the digital age, education through the Internet becomes a new form of teaching and learning, which leaves many challenges as well as possibilities for teachers and students. In this study, we analyzed the effective practices for online learning comparing schools and private supplementary tutoring. South Korea is an appropriate country for this investigation, as public and private education sectors have attempted to advance online teaching and learning and approximately 80% of Korean elementary and secondary school students take online courses provided by private tutoring institutes. This qualitative study reveals that online learning in private supplementary tutoring, commonly known as shadow education, is highly advanced and favored by students and parents compared to that of schools. The features of online learning in shadow education include individualized learning, effective communication skills under post-human space, attention skills for cyber learning, and advanced Internet technologies and tools. The study results have practical implications for educational administrators and schoolteachers concerning effective online teaching and learning. In addition, we suggest that a more comprehensive understanding of online learning is needed to guide schoolteachers and policymakers. Full article

As private tutoring has expanded worldwide, it has been noted that private tutoring and associated emotional distress can affect sleep duration and the health of adolescent students. However, the relationships between extra-school tutoring time, somatic symptoms, defined as physical symptoms of emotional distress, and sleep duration in adolescents has rarely been determined. The aim of this study was to identify these relationships in adolescent students. Data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey were analyzed to address the research questions. Weekday sleep duration, extra-school tutoring time, and somatic symptoms were measured using adolescents’ self-report questionnaires. A multilevel, structural equation model was utilized to test the relationships between these variables and was deemed appropriate considering the repeated measure of the panel data. After controlling for respondent sex, parent working status and education level, and family structure, adolescents’ extra-school tutoring time and level of somatic symptoms were associated with sleep duration during weekdays. Furthermore, the association between extra-school tutoring time and sleep duration was partially mediated by somatic symptoms. Korean adolescent students slept less than the recommended duration. Intervention programs that increase parental interest and attention in adolescent students’ lives, not only focused on academic achievement but also emotional distress is needed. Researchers and policymakers should understand recommended age-appropriate sleep duration and the educational culture and provide balanced strategies between the consideration of the effect of private education on academic achievement and the need to guarantee physical and mental health in adolescent students. Full article