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Online education is expanding within higher education. However, attrition rates for African American males enrolled in higher education in general, and in online courses specifically, is on the rise. Because the future of our nation depends on how well our educational institutions develop, nurture, and deploy talent, an investigation was conducted to identify factors that […]
The purpose of this study was to investigate: (a) the characteristics of online students’ cognitive presence in a peer-facilitated discussion environment, and (b) the peer facilitation techniques that enhance cognitive presence development. In this study, we examined 738 discussion messages. Analytic methods included both qualitative and quantitative content analysis. The findings revealed that although cognitive […]
Online learning environments could be well understood as a multifaceted phenomenon affected by different aspects of learner participation including synchronous/asynchronous interactions. The aim of this study was to investigate learners’ participation in online courses, synchronous interaction with a conversational virtual agent, their relationships with learner performance, and the participation/interaction factor identification. To examine learner participation, […]
In this article, we examine whether an inquiry-based, hands-on physics lab can be delivered effectively as a distance lab. In science and engineering, hands-on distance labs are rare and open-ended project labs in physics have not been reported in the literature. Our introductory physics lab at a large Canadian research university features hands-on experiments that […]
Student-centered learning environments (SCLE) enable students to direct their own learning as they engage in authentic problem-solving. SCLEs may be designed using blended learning infrastructure present in many schools today. Using a qualitative single case study design, the researcher examined an alleged student-centered learning environment, with a focus on the environment’s core design values; and […]
This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of ePortfolio experiences among health professions students at a major Australasian research-intensive university. This exploratory study of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) aims to understand the experiences and perspectives of students introduced to program-level ePortfolios across multiple curricula in the health sciences. Six key themes […]
Within the vast search for ways to enhance the online classroom learning environment and to engage students fully, researchers often turn to discussions concerning instructor-student interactions that take place daily in the online classroom. Although students interact with other students and with the content, it is the student-instructor interaction and connection that appears to support […]
This article discusses the strategies to support Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) using a wiki site in online courses and examines student perceptions of the helpfulness of the wiki site and the applied PKM-related strategies. Fifty-seven students in six online class sessions completed a 25-item perception survey. The results showed that students did perceive the helpfulness […]
Research-based best practices that employ learning theories such as Project-Based Learning (PBL) have not been thoroughly developed for the constraints of the K-12 online setting, nor have they been tested in this unique context. K-12 online teacher-developers face many constraints during the process of instructional design and require additional supports to translate these learning theories […]
Student learning outcomes depend on the depth and quality of their engagement in learning. Since the early 2000s, the concept of engagement has gained a lot of attention from researchers. Scholars often define engagement as a complex construct that consists of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional components, and argue instructors should attend to each one of […]
