Faculty Resources & Services

The findings show that the number of higher education students taking at least one distance education course in 2015 now tops six million, about 30% of all enrollments.

The sudden shift from face-to-face instruction to distance-learning has been disruptive, forcing a sea change in behaviors and practices in academia. A new survey by Bay View Analytics, in partnership with six leading academic organizations polled more than 800 U.S. higher education faculty and administrators, from over 600 different institutions, to gauge their concerns and needs.

ITC is a leader in advancing distance education. ITC's mission is to provide exceptional leadership and professional development in higher education to its network of eLearning practitioners by advocating, collaborating, researching, and sharing exemplary, innovative practices and potential in educational technologies. ITC tracks federal legislation that will affect distance learning, conducts annual professional development meetings, supports research, and provides a forum for members to share expertise and materials.
ITC is an affiliated council of the AACC and represents nearly 200 institutions that offer distance education courses to their students in the United States, Canada and around the world. Members include single institutions and multi-campus districts; regional and statewide systems of community, technical and two-year colleges; for-profit organizations; four-year institutions; and, non-profit organizations that are interested or involved in instructional telecommunications.

Inclusion in this list is provided to the field as a way to highlight the breadth of research available. It is not an endorsement of the intervention or the study by the WWC, IES, or the US Department of Education. If the studies have been reviewed by the WWC, a link to the study review page is included in the list. Note that not all of the studies listed here are eligible for WWC review or would necessarily meet WWC standards.

This article is a case study of the use of the Indicators of Engaged Learning Online (IELO) framework (See Appendix 1) as a guide to evaluate the quality of online courses. The framework lends itself well to measures of engagement, particularly, in terms of online course design because of its comprehensiveness. Six online courses were evaluated for quality in terms of engaged learning based on thirty indicators contained within the framework. Results ranged from a score of 21 to 71 out of a potential total score of 90. This 0–90 scale represented a continuum of passive to engaged learning. The purpose of the pilot study was to explore how the Indicators of Engaged Learning Online (IELO) framework could be used as a tool for evaluating the quality of online courses by instructional designers (IDs) and instructors. Insights into the practical use of the IELO framework and the need for improved guidelines for IDs and instructors as they assess the amount of student engagement designed in a course are provided. Recommendations for practice have implications for both aspects of engagement: how a course is designed and how it is delivered.

We examined the contribution of Internet operational and navigation skills, previous knowledge, and working memory capacity to expository text comprehension as a lesson within an e-learning course. As different from previous studies in controlled settings; this study addressed students' typical behavior in more ecological conditions. The first study tested self-reported Internet Skills Scale structure, reliability and concurrent validity, in a sample of 254 college students from a large Latin American public university. The second study addressed the contribution of selfreported Internet skills, previous domain knowledge, and working memory capacity to text comprehension in e-learning. Students (n = 125) read high or low previous knowledge expository science texts and answered questions about them, in an e-learning course specifically designed for research purposes, accessed remotely. They also completed working memory tests. Working memory and navigation were significantly associated with text comprehension: higher working memory, and lower scores in self-reported navigation behavior, led to better comprehension. These results have implications for instructional design and reading strategies interventions.

Promoting collaboration and discourse in asynchronous online courses is challenging; students need something engaging to talk about, a communications medium in which to fluidly discuss it, and a social environment that supports discourse. We designed a fully online introductory geoscience lecture and lab course called Geology Goes Hollywood that emphasizes all three of the dimensions of the community of inquiry framework: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. To heighten cognitive presence, we pair Hollywood movies with documentaries about issues relevant to students' lives (specifically earthquake hazards, water supply and contamination, and issues of fracking). To promote social presence, students worked in teams to evaluate one another's conceptual understanding of the course material, collaboratively analyze data and interpret findings, and discuss real-world scenarios. Our teaching presence involved appropriate collaborative technologies that enabled human interactions and consistent deadlines. Because of the effort to build community, about a third of students reported that our asynchronous online class felt "more human" than many of their face-to-face general education courses.

The 21th century is considered to be the electronic age. This electronic age brings opportunities for new ways to deliver a lecture or a whole course in higher education. By offering courses online, universities are trying to reach the population of students that cannot attend classes on campus. Professors also utilize technology in a variety of ways to help them teach traditional classes. Valdosta State University (VSU) offers a variety of courses online including College Algebra (Math 1111). While we are trying to reach more students through the online courses, we should also examine the impact to student learning and success in College Algebra. In the fall 2016 and spring 2017 terms, VSU offered the first online sections of Math 1111 with 27 and 23 students, respectively. The course retention rate and the students' performance on the departmental final exam for the treatment group, online section (OS), versus the control group, traditional section (TS) of 350 students, were compared. The OS had a statistically significant higher departmental final exam average, but there was no statistically significant difference in retention rate.

We completed a qualitative study focusing on our students’ use of Discussion Roles in our general and entry level online classes and presented the information at a Brown Bag presentation for University of Phoenix instructors and staff in October 2016. The following contains the results of the study including: (1) ways to use Discussion Roles in class discussions without assigning them, (2) ways to encourage students’ use of Discussion Roles, (3) how students reacted to using Discussion Roles, (4) results of students’ use of Discussion Roles, and (5) How instructors’ future use of Discussion Roles can help adult students acclimate to asynchronous, online discussion. Discussion Roles provide scaffolding that helps students create written responses that reflect higher level thinking. Implications for improving practice relate to asynchronous discussion, students’ use of higher level thinking skills, and instructors encouraging students’ use of Discussion Roles. Finally, ideas for new types of Discussion Roles led the researchers to suggest further study of Discussion Roles and how they can be used by students to take control of their learning and maximize the benefits of asynchronous discussion.

This study describes a master's program cohort in the Southeast transitioning from a traditional to an online paradigm. This study examined through narrative analysis the online dialogue of engagement between students and faculty through the lens of social constructivism, specifically focusing on barriers creating monologue and facilitators creating "online " dialogue (Gergen, 1999). Transformative dialogue was more difficult in the online transition because of technology structures and differing expectations. Results suggest that faculty and students must be prepared to use online technology in a pedagogical setting that requires greater responsibility for students to "manage their education." The "boundedness" of an online environment requires faculty to encourage a shift from blame to responsibility. Although online dialogue was considered "stilted," even by experienced participants, the convenience is evident for students as well as faculty. The results demonstrated the need for faculty presence through the use of online tools to make the online environment meaningful. Reviewing these narratives may help administrators prepare for a transition to an online program.

Approximately 7.1 million college students have taken at least one online course (Allen and Seaman, 2014), which indicates an increase of 12% since 2011 (Wisloski, 2011). This study examines the generalizability and nomological validity of the E-S-QUAL scale, originally developed in 2005 by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Malhotra for assessing e- service quality in higher education. Data collected from online college students from a US university show satisfactory fit of the model to the data and indicate the 20-item E-S-QUAL scale can be adapted as a standardized method of online program quality assessment. Important impacts of the measure 's utility are discussed.

With the development of online education, increased attention has been given to standards, motivations and best-practices within online education. This study is designed to explore the intersections between perceptions and practices that educators who teach online hold in relation to perceptions and practices of students who are taking online courses. Applications are provided for institutions, faculty and students who are considering participating in an online education environment.

With the increase of internationalization and globalization in higher education, more international students are arriving at U.S. higher education institutions, especially from China. At the same time, the increase in online courses and programs at U.S. colleges and universities has led to many of the international Chinese students taking online courses while in the U.S., whether voluntarily or involuntarily. This article discusses methods and strategies for working with international students in online courses and ways to effectively teach them (with a stronger focus on Asian learners) based on existing literature and the results of a phenomenological study of six international graduate students. There is a demonstrated need for the instructors to be more culturally aware when teaching to improve the online learning experiences of international students although the international students themselves also need to be more prepared for online courses. Recommendations are provided for instructors as well as international students.

To address this knowledge gap, the growing need for national data related to online learning program development as well as to identify and track key administrative issues impacting faculty and students involved in online learning, the ITC Board of Directors developed the ITC national survey that was administered for the first time in 2004.Since its inception, the survey has focused on identifying and tracking the trends and emerging best practices in online education at community colleges.Other findings from the 2016 survey included: * Blackboard™ and Instructure Canvas™ were the most popular learning management systems; * 37% of respondents were confident their distance program was compliant with Sections 504 and 508 of the ADA; * 94% of respondents confirmed their institution offered at least one online degree; * 95% of respondents indicated their online classes were equal to or better than traditional classes; * 83% of distance learning programs reported to some type of academic administrator; and * Community college online enrollments were down 2.7% (first time in 13 years of the survey there was a decline in online enrollments).[...]one of the earliest lessons learned was to minimize changes to the survey question base and to add new questions sparingly.To accomplish this, the ITC conducts an annual ITC webinar at the time of the survey release, offers a special senior leadership briefing to provide tailored and focused results most important to campus leadership, produces relevant materials in support of distribution and edification of the campus community (Infographic, Executive Summary of key findings, PowerPoint for campus presentations), articles in relevant web-based eLearning sites, and a membership briefing at the annual ITC eLearning Conference.

The study presented in this article explores a major issue of distance learners' life: isolation. Isolation is a non-productive emotional state, the presence or absence of which can make a difference between a successful and an unsuccessful learning experience. Yet, no studies have been performed exploring the relationship between isolation and written assignment feedback in the context of the M. Ed. in TESOL programme of the Hellenic Open University (HOU). Our purpose, thus, was to explore the dimensions of isolation in this distance learning context and discover the feedback properties that can reduce this feeling for those who experience it. A sample of 58 students on the specific course completed a questionnaire and 6 interviews were also conducted for clarification and triangulation purposes. The questionnaire data was analysed with the use of SPSS. Frequencies and medians were calculated for Likert scale items and correlation tests were performed to determine the interplay between specific variables. Isolation was examined through the lens of transactional distance and, specifically, by measuring the attitudes of the learners on the course towards the variables that constitute transactional distance. Our research showed that isolation exists. It also showed that strengthening the tutor-learner dialogue, peer-topeer communication and the bond of the student community through feedback provision could play an important role in the battle against it.

A renewed focus should be on human aspects and change behaviour in the uptake of e-learning. Thus, the overriding purpose of the study was to provide a diagnostic insight into how different factors come into play in the context of best practices of e-learning. The research aimed to help build a robust approach to the phenomenon. A dominant quantitative and less dominant qualitative method using survey approach was adopted. A total of 2,718 undergraduate students of the School of Social Sciences at two campuses of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, UKZN, South Africa participated in the survey. The theoretical framework adopted to underpin the research was the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Model (UTAUT). The findings identified the criticality of factors such as perceived ease of use, complexity, ease of use, attitude, subjective norm, social factors and image to best practices of e-learning. The significance of the study has the potential to impact on the policy, implementation and best practices of e-learning. Theoretically, the context of South Africa in contrast to early adopter countries was employed to advance the frontiers of global knowledge and improve an understanding of the UTAUT model to explain e-learning best practices.

Synchronous online education occurs when the students and faculty member are in different locations geographically and interaction occurs simultaneously through the internet at scheduled times. In this study I investigated the phenomenon of using synchronous online classes blended with a face-to-face classroom to complete the freshman year of college. The essence of the experience emerged around the concept of ambiguity, specifically in regard to group membership, functionality of technology, and place. This understanding of ambiguity provides a framework upon which to design practices for engaging such distance students and best promoting their learning.

Shortly after we created a face-to-face, student-centered, general education classroom at the University of Kentucky, we were asked to create a similar environment online. In this article, we describe what we did and what we learned in the process. This is not a comparative, controlled study, but an anthology of examples and reflection. Our aim is to share experiences that other instructors might find useful when constructing their online classes.

Online learning in postsecondary institutions has increased dramatically across the United States and Canada. Although research demonstrates the benefits of online learning for student success, instructors face challenges in facilitating communication, delivering course content, and navigating outdated and cumbersome technologies. The authors examine the use of a free third-party platform called Slack as a tool to facilitate better communication among students and faculty, enable the delivery of diverse and dynamic course content, and reach students in an online course that supports both independent and collaborative learning. The authors present a case study of Slack's use in an online second-year environmental politics course taught at a large Canadian public university. There is a significant and growing literature on how to best engage students in online learning, including active and social learning models as promising approaches to digital teaching. The authors argue that using collaborative social technologies such as Slack--which both replicates and integrates the online and social-media environments that students already inhabit--can assist faculty in meeting their pedagogical goals online. The article documents the instructors' experience in managing discussion and involving students in their online learning through active learning exercises. Best practices are examined.

[...]technological development (largely the Internet, remote communications and even social networks) is the step towards a universal phenomenon that has integrated and connected us in a shared virtual or physical reality [6]. [...]we will highlight the terms of E-learning and Distance Education that highlight the clear usefulness of virtual laboratories; however, as explained in the introduction, not all of them need to be with remote access and can be used in face-to-face laboratories. 3.3. [...]the orange cluster in Figure 14, focused on engineering education, highlights keywords such as remote laboratories, learning management systems, virtual instrument systems, or augmented reality. Virtual laboratories have become a real fact in recent years not only at technical universities [61], but also at all types of university degrees. Because learners’ and teachers’ use of ICT along with the content provided by a virtual laboratory are key points in extending the system [62], and therefore the virtual laboratories are certainly a means to support the sustainability of universities.

PurposeThis paper aims to compare the students enrolled to a three-year undergraduate, bachelor degree on Security of Computer Systems and Networks, offered in traditional, classroom fashion as well as online at the University of Milan (Italy). Its main purposes are to estimate the main characteristics of the two different student populations addressed (i.e. online vs classroom students) to understand if an online version of an already existing traditional university degree allows to extend the enrollment of students; and to evaluate the effectiveness of the e-learning approach adopted, comparing performance of the two student populations. The study aims to supply a significant case study, based on a real experience more than 10 years long.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on the statistical interpretation of a huge amount of data, collected during the overall life of Sicurezza dei Sistemi e delle Reti Informatiche (SSRI) online, regarding student age, income, grades obtained in exams and after final dissertation and graduation time.FindingsThe paper allows to conclude that the online student population has very limited overlap with the classroom one, which means that the online version of an already existing degree can definitely enlarge the student enrollment and reach older students; and a carefully designed e-learning environment allows committed online students to obtain results comparable when not better than the ones of classroom students.Research limitations/implicationsThe study refers to a single, specific degree in computer science and technology; thus, it may lack generalizability. Similar experiences in other areas could be useful.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to study how e-learning can be successfully applied to already existing traditional university degrees.

Teaching and learning at a distance is now commonplace, and research, when viewed holistically, clearly demonstrates that learning a distance is generally neither bettor nor worse than learning in other situations. The research also indicates that the application of instructional design procedures is mandatory for effective instruction delivered to distant learners-instructors cannot "wing" instruction at a distance (Simonson, Zvacek, & Smaldino, 2019). This article provides an overview of research in and on distance teaching and learning. This manuscript is derived from the textbook Teaching and Learning at a Distance, by Simonson et al. (2019), with permission.

This paper investigates the skills developed in higher education management courses through an eLearning process. The relevance of this research is based on the approach to theories of skills development, and the main purpose is to identify the skills developed by the students from management courses and compare it to the skills needed by the organizations to be competitive in the market. In this stage of the research, the skills needed by the organizations were identified through a document analysis of prospective studies conducted in industrial sectors developed in the last 15 years. In order to verify whether these skills are developed in the management courses, an online survey was conducted among distance learning University students from 2011 to 2014. The research problem considered the analytical dimension of skills development in organizations anchored to the following research questions: What were the skills identified in the prospective studies? What has been the level of skills developed in courses on management in e-learning mode in higher education? What were the relationships between the perceived skills development and various factors such as gender, employed/unemployed, type of organization and job variables? What are the lessons learnt in order to propose a theoretical model developing skills in higher education management courses? This study is centred on the research of more relevant work skills which can contribute to organizations’ performance and competitiveness in the market.

Educators often struggle with delivering top-notch online courses that create a climate for a fulfilling classroom experience, provide content that translates into immediate action and application, and blends relevance, rigor and a personal touch to the classroom setting. Based on research studies of human intelligence also known as multiple intelligences by cognitive scientist Howard Gardner, and secondary sources focused on functions of management, the art and science of using technology and multiple intelligence practices to deliver leading edge online classroom education is examined. Furthermore, this empirical study through a lens of instructing and observing as a teacher and administrator, over 80 online courses comprised of learners seeking undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees during 18 years at public and private universities, explores a myriad of implications resulting from using technologies to deliver stellar online classroom education to include: (a) human psychology, (b) medium, (c) information, and (d) instructional design. The article concludes with a perspective on the challenges and opportunities of using technologies to deliver leading edge online classroom education. The content can be used to assist current and future educators with developing or strengthening the online classroom using technologies and incorporating multiple intelligence practices for a more fulfilling classroom experience.

Culturally responsive teaching and design practices flip the online classroom by creating an environment that acknowledges, celebrates, and builds upon the cultural capital that learners and teachers bring to the online classroom. Challenges exist in all phases of online course design, including the ability to create online courses that reflect the instructor's commitment to inclusive excellence, diversity, and social justice. Designing an online environment that supports all learners regardless of their backgrounds is important in their future success as professionals; thus, it is important for faculty to design courses with all students in mind. The purpose of this article is to share best practices in the design of culturally and linguistically responsive online courses that support the culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students we serve. Based on Gay's ( 2010 ) culturally responsive teaching practices, this article provides examples of online activities that are validating; comprehensive; multi-dimensional; empowering; transformative, and emancipatory.

PurposeThis paper aims to review the literature to discuss engaging online instructional design and instructors’ role in enhancing learner engagement in educational and corporate settings.Design/methodology/approachThis paper carries out a narrative literature review.FindingsInstructor presence in online learner engagement is a multidimensional effort, and learner engagement can be established in online instruction through communication, consistent feedback on learner performance and critical discourse. Building connection with the learners is essential in an online learning environment. Engaging online instructors challenge and encourage learners to spare more academic effort, use techniques to improve engagement and involve and care about learners.Research limitations/implicationsInstructors’ roles in shaping online learning and instruction deserve more attention. More research is needed to understand which technologies work best for specific academic areas or learner demographics and why online learners find it difficult to learn with peers unless supplemented with appropriate online instruction.Practical implicationsThis review offers strategies for improved online instructional design to achieve learning engagement.Originality/valueThis review highlights an underexplored concept of instructors’ role in creating engaging online instructional design by understanding learner needs and receptiveness.

Online education continues its growth trajectory benefitting public four-year institutions of higher education as well as private universities. Recently, private non-profits have experienced double-digit increases despite late entry into online education. Situated within the context of a private nonprofit institution and its recently developed asynchronous online program, the purpose of this paper is to examine the teaching experiences of first-time business professors as seen through the lens of a SWOT analysis. Designed to capture the views of three stakeholders: Students, Faculty, and the Institution, the SWOT analysis suggests that local and regional research may yield untapped sources of opportunity for online programs at non-profit institutions.

As the popularity of online education continues to rise, many colleges and universities are interested in how to best deliver course content for online learners. This study explores the ways in which taking courses through an online medium impacts student engagement, utilizing data from the National Survey of Student Engagement. Data was analyzed using a series of ordinary least squares regression models, also controlling for relevant student and institutional characteristics. The results indicated numerous significant relationships between taking online courses and student engagement for both first-year students and seniors. Those students taking greater numbers of online courses were more likely to engage in quantitative reasoning. However, they were less likely to engage in collaborative learning, student-faculty interactions, and discussions with diverse others, compared to their more traditional classroom counterparts. The students with greater numbers of online courses also reported less exposure to effective teaching practices and lower quality of interactions. The relationship between these engagement indicators and the percentage of classes taken online suggests that an online environment might benefit certain types of engagement, but may also be somewhat of a deterrent to others. Institutions should consider these findings when designing online course content, and encourage faculty to contemplate ways of encouraging student engagement across a variety of delivery types.

This article describes a practical approach for implementing instructional strategies in order to build a Community of Inquiry (CoI) into an online course. Online community building has positive effects on the quality of student learning, increases student engagement, and encourages motivation of students in online courses. The CoI is a theoretical framework focusing on facilitating meaningful learning experiences through three presences: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. This article will introduce the CoI framework by way of literature review focusing on CoI instructional strategies. Using Sorensen and Baylen’s (2009) seven principles of good practice, the author will structure CoI instructional activities into presence categories for practitioner use.

A constructivist learning paradigm emphasises authenticity as a required condition for learning. However, the design of an online learning environment is ultimately separate from learners’ real-life environments, it is inevitably challenging to make online learning authentic. In this article, the author aims to propose an alternative way of conceptualizing online learning and its boundaries, based on a double-layered Community of Practice model as a means to facilitate authentically constructivist online learning. The model conceptualizes online learning as interlinked processes of participation and socialization in multiple communities across online- and offline-“layers” of learners’ lives. The model guides online course designers in expanding the perceived boundaries of the course environments they design to include learners’ offline learning contexts. Instead of having an exclusive focus on providing learners with constructivist learning opportunities within a non-authentic course environment, the model suggests helping learners to engage in more personalized social learning activities situated in their everyday lives. The paper presents data from a series of case studies drawn from the author’s work that has examined students’ learning experiences in different kinds of online courses, unpacking and answering the central question of what authentically constructivist online learning looks like in each case. With a more holistic conceptualization of online learning, which recognizes and supports online learners’ simultaneous presence across internal and external communities, instructional designers may be able to facilitate learners’ more authentically constructivist learning experiences.

There is an increased demand for online courses and programs. As a result, institutions are experimenting with different ways to train and support faculty to teach online. There is very little recent literature, though, describing the various ways that institutions actually train faculty to teach online. In this article, we report on the results of our inquiry into how institutions with large online programs train faculty to design online courses and teach online.

Students’ demand for online learning continues. At the same time, results of multiple studies from the early 2000s through the present day point to a set of common concerns that may explain faculty members’ hesitation and resistance to online teaching. However, less is known about how faculty members experience online teaching, especially the “essential elements” of work that the literature shows relate to positive workplace outcomes. Essential elements of work, as defined by Gappa, Austin, and Trice (2007) include flexibility and balance, academic freedom and autonomy, professional relationships, and professional growth. Findings from interviews with 19 faculty members showed that online teaching simultaneously enabled and frustrated faculty’s experiences of the “essential elements.” We recommend ways in which administrators can address these frustrations and highlight the positive aspects of online teaching.

While online courses are becoming a mainstay of college course offerings administrators, staff, instructors and students have different perceptions about how online courses should work. While faculty members are expert in their discipline and institutions provide support for acquiring content expertise, how instructors develop skills in online teaching is neither systematic nor codified in higher education. This preliminary study reports findings from a Delphi study of expert online teachers who identified 11 institutional strategies that best supported their development of online teaching skills. Three major areas of most value were: training, external supports, and prolonged experience.

Learning through a collective experience by taking part in group activities, such as hunting, gathering, and sharing, has always been a natural, "organic," and "experiential" process where new skills and knowledge, if benefitting the whole group, are accepted, shared, and propagated. Nevertheless, in industrialized societies where specific knowledge and skills are an economical and societal necessity, the learning economy has largely moved to a model where the teachers "harvest" selected knowledge and "put it in a basket" from which students are expected to take from and learn. This learning model has permeated the 21st century digital world, where the main promoted advantage of these new learning environments is still the "individualization of learning," which can result in a very solitary and isolated endeavor; however, it doesn't have to be the case. An example of a successful online university course suggests that carefully crafted online instructional design strategies can contribute to a flexible and rich experiential learning environment. Although they might be physically disconnected, it is possible for learners and a teacher to remain closely interconnected, engaged, and accountable for both individual and group success in knowledge "hunting, gathering, and sharing" activities in a digital age.

PurposeThis study aims to understand how mode of delivery, online versus face-to-face, affects comprehension when teaching operations management concepts via a simulation. Conceptually, the aim is to identify factors that influence the students’ ability to learn and retain new concepts.Design/methodology/approachLeveraging Littlefield Technologies’ simulation, the study investigates how team interaction, team leadership, instructor’s guidance, simulation’s ease of use and previous software experience affects comprehension for both online and face-to-face teaching environments. Survey data were gathered from 514 undergraduate students. The data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsFor the face-to-face population, this study found that team interaction, previous software experience, instructor’s guidance and simulation’s ease of use affected student comprehension. This differed from the online population who were only affected by the simulation’s ease of use and instructor’s guidance.Originality/valueUnderstanding how the mode of delivery affects comprehension is important as educators develop new online teaching techniques and experiment with innovative technologies like simulation. As demand for online education grows, many instructors find they need to refine their methods to ensure students comprehend the concepts being taught regardless of modality.

This study analyzed design and technological issues encountered by online course instructors as they taught 120 online courses while working with a designated instructional designer. After developing the courses and their approval in compliance with a set, standardized rubric, the implementation of the 120 courses brought out issues that required the assistance of an instructional designer. The study identified and analyzed specific issues that cut across most courses. The study presents implications to faculty, instructional designers, and administrators.

This mixed-methods study investigated the process 27 online teaching instructors went through during a semester-long online course development training intended to advance their online course design and management skills. The course was designed to introduce key concepts in online teaching and learning that included online course design, digital content planning and construction, communication management, and troubleshooting. Specifically, the study analyzed participants' entry- and exit-point skills in the process of completing highly specialized training. The study further analyzed benefits and issues that emanated from the whole process. The study presents implications to faculty, instructional designers, and administrators.

Faculty from myriad departments offer their classes in an online environment, students expect colleges and universities to offer distance learning options, and higher education institutions rely upon distance learning sections to bolster their enrollment figures. While moving to a rigid system of prescribed activities, boilerplate language, and standardized structures does help to assure a reasonable level of quality in a class, such an approach can stunt the growth and overall potential of distance learning classes. [...]keeping classes rooted on campus creates a level of accountability and oversight that ensures quality instruction, support, and learning.

Increased enrollment in online programs and courses has prompted a plethora of research on instructional strategies that impact online students' learning. Most of these strategies came from instructors, and others were solicited from students. While the literature notes that students who have more university experience tend to provide more substantive responses when solicited, there seems to be limited representation of online master's students' preferences on what instructional strategies work for them. There is paucity in the literature on how these preferred instructional strategies inform existing theoretical and practical frameworks that could impact online learning performance. This article discusses the Top Ten Instructional Strategies preferred by master's students who responded to a dissertation survey question - What specific things would you like your online instructors do to help you learn successfully? - and relates these strategies to the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education and the Quality Matters Rubric.

Many online learners have frustrations and concerns regarding the online experience. These concerns include institutional complaints, course-room and professor complaints, personal concerns about academic ability and time management skills, and more. This article examines the online learning experience from the student's perspective. Seven open-ended discussion questions were asked of 302 students in 16 graduate business courses, over a 3-year period. Two hundred twenty-nine students responded, identifying their observations and perceptions of their personal online learning experience. This article explores the difficulties and opportunities presented by online education, but is focused on understanding the student's perception of these issues, and their experience in the online classroom. About 75 student quotes are offered to document and flavor this examination. After grounded theory analysis, this article concludes by offering modest advice and suggestions to institutions, instructors, and students on how to improve the online learning experience for all.

Online college courses are a rapidly expanding feature of higher education, yet little research identifies their effects relative to traditional in-person classes. Using an instrumental variables approach, we find that taking a course online, instead of in-person, reduces student success and progress in college. Grades are lower both for the course taken online and in future courses. Students are less likely to remain enrolled at the university. These estimates are local average treatment effects for students with access to both online and in-person options; for other students, online classes may be the only option for accessing college-level courses.

Virtual courses create a self-directed learning environment for students. Given that online environments provide anonymity so that the emphasis is on the content, rather than on the form of the message or the identity of the sender (Herring, 1993) this study assesses students’ personal usages in an online collaboration across several states and semesters. In examining the student and instructor perspective, the findings are significant in that, students engage in reflective work employing academic quality discussions across varying institution types from community colleges to public and private universities and that their discussions occur without gender or question type biases. Semester-end surveys confirm that an asynchronous e-learning collaboration enhanced their educational experience and they belonged to a global community of learners. This study adds its significant findings about the growth of online discussions promoting and enhancing the experience of e-learners and collaborative endeavors.

As online learning has become more prevalent, how learners interact with each other in those learning environments has become more salient. To develop effective levels of interaction, students must feel comfortable to express their ideas and views. For this reason, this paper aims to look at how individual students’ levels of social presence affect germane cognitive load. Germane cognitive load is the amount that students are able to construct schema and can be seen as analogous to learning.

University students, who are assumed to be digital natives, are exposed to campus e-learning environments to improve their academic performance at the beginning of their academic careers. However, previous studies of students’ perceptions of e-learning demonstrate a lack of consistent results with respect to the prediction of their academic achievement. The goal of this study was to examine university students’ perceptions of e-learning, based on their experiences, and the mediating roles of academic engagement and digital readiness within the university context of an e-learning environment for academic achievement. A total of 614 undergraduate students enrolled in a Korean university participated in this study. Using a partial least squares model to develop the theory, we examined students engaging in university e-learning environments in relation to their perceptions of e-learning, digital readiness, academic engagement, and academic achievement (i.e., grade point average). The results are significant for the importance of students’ academic engagement and digital readiness as mediators in their perceptions of e-learning predicted by academic achievement. Although students positively perceived e-learning experiences on campus, they must have strong digital skills to perform academic work and commit to effortful involvement in the context of academic learning in university e-learning environments. Our results provide practical implications for ways to enhance effective adoption of e-learning environments by college students, educators, and administrators.

The purpose of this study is to identify relationships of learners’ achievement goal orientation, self-regulation, test-anxiety, self-efficacy, participation, satisfaction, and achievement in online learning environments in Korea. A total of 1,832 student responses from a Korean cyber university were used to find structural relationships of factors. Causal relationships among various variables are provided as results of this study. Achievement goal orientation –approach, self-regulated learning, test-anxiety, and self-efficacy, were positively related to participation; however, achievement goal orientation-avoidance was negatively related to participation. Test-anxiety was directly related to learning achievement and it was found that participation affected learning satisfaction and learning achievement. It was also revealed that learning satisfaction was related to learning achievement. Results of this study suggest that a comprehensive management of learners’ psychological variables, such as achievement goal orientation, self-regulation, test-anxiety, self-efficacy for designing, and managing online learning environments is important to online learning organizations, instructors, and administrators for better learner support.

The purpose of this descriptive research study was to determine students' perceptions toward online classes. Findings reveal 90% of students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University have experienced taking classes online. When students have an option to take an online class or a face-to-face class, they make the decision mainly based on class scheduling flexibility. Students perceived instructional videos, PowerPoint with recorded narrative, quizzes, video recordings of the live classes, instructional audios, case studies, reading materials, and hands-on projects as the eight most helpful and preferred instructional activities for them to learn online. Students were not enthusiastic about discussion boards and forums. Online instructional preferences did not vary with gender except for word puzzles. Students identified 'testing with a combination of multiple choice and essay-type question exams administered through an online class management software program' as the most preferred testing method.

This paper aims to examine and discuss the awareness, benefits and challenges of e-learning in Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. In this study, survey method was adopted and the questionnaire was the only tool used for data collection. The finding showed that awareness about ICT or e-Learning among the university students was good but e-learning software's knowledge was very poor and respondents' main source to know about e-learning was the Internet according to the study. Most of the students thought that studying through e-learning is a good idea. The study also found that majority of students agreed to e-learning as it provides an attractive learning environment and it helps to acquire new ideas. Furthermore, the finding also revealed that majority of students thought that lack of familiarity with English, lack of comfort with technology, lack of financial resources and limited infrastructure were main problems in e-learning.

PurposeDue to the autonomous nature of e-learning, learner control options should be provided to allow students to be more selective of content based on learning needs. Maintaining students’ situational interest should also be a goal in e-learning, as research shows that doing so leads to a greater chance of success. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between learner control and maintained situational interest in hopes of promoting better engagement through content selection based on learning needs.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzed survey responses from university students (n = 2,173) participating in a variety of massive online courses in South Korea to investigate the correlation between system-provided learner control and maintained situational interest. Additionally, the correlation between learner control and maintained situational interest was examined among demographic subsets including gender, age and grade level.FindingsResults show a positive relationship between learner control and maintained situational interest, as well as a positive relationship between learner control and maintained situational interest among each demographic subset.Originality/valueThese results add to the current literature by promoting a practical way of maintaining students’ situational interest by providing them with the ability to control aspects of their own learning processes.

Instructor social presence involves instructors establishing their presence as “being there” in terms of frequency of communication and interaction with students as well as supporting students throughout the learning process (Lowenthal 2015). Instructor social presence can be constructed and maintained through the design and facilitation of online courses. Studies have indicated that instructor social presence can be correlated with increased learning satisfaction, engagement and achievement as well as learners perceptions of the instructor. This sequential explanatory mixed method study investigated the effects of instructor social presence on achievement, satisfaction and learner social presence and further sought to identify effective instructor social presence techniques in asynchronous online courses. The results of this study showed that the degree of instructor social presence significantly influenced instructor perceptions of student achievement. Findings also suggest that a well-designed collaborative learning activity can be an effective strategy for building instructor social presence.

PurposeOnline content developers use the term “stickiness” to refer to the ability of their online service or game to attract and hold the attention of users and create a compelling and magnetic reason for them to return repeatedly (examples include virtual pets and social media). In business circles, the same term connotes the level of consumer loyalty to a particular brand. This paper aims to extend the concept of “stickiness” not only to describe repeat return and commitment to the learning “product”, but also as a measure of the extent to which students are engaged in online learning opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper explores the efficacy of several approaches to the monitoring and measuring of online learning environments, and proposes a framework for assessing the extent to which these environments are compelling, engaging and “sticky”.FindingsIn particular, the exploration so far has highlighted the difference between how lecturers have monitored the engagement of students in a face-to-face setting versus the online teaching environment.Practical implicationsIn the higher education environment where increasingly students are being asked to access learning in the online space, it is vital for teachers to be in a position to monitor and guide students in their engagement with online materials.Originality/valueThe mere presence of learning materials online is not sufficient evidence of engagement. This paper offers options for testing specific attention to online materials allowing greater assurance around engagement with relevant and effective online learning activities.

E-Learning environments are enhancing both their functionalities and the quality of the resources provided, thus simplifying the creation of learning ecologies adapted for students with disabilities. The number of students with disabilities enrolled in online courses is so small, and their impairments are so specific that it becomes difficult to quantify and identify which specific actions should be taken to support them. This work contributes to scientific literature with two key aspects: 1) It identifies which barriers these students encounter, and which tools they use to create learning ecologies adapted to their impairments; 2) It also presents the results from a case study in which 161 students with recognised disabilities evaluate the efficiency and ease of use of an online learning environment in higher education studies. The work presented in this paper highlights the need to provide multimedia elements with subtitles, text transcriptions, and the option to be downloadable and editable so that the student can adapt them to their needs and learning style.

Transactional distance (TD), the perception of psychological distance between the student and his peers, his instructor/teacher, and the learning content, has long been a prominent construct in research on distance education. Today, distance education primarily takes place over the internet, with technology mediating engagement and communication. Because transactional distance in online distance learning will always rely on technologically-mediated communication or interaction, we argue that in order to get the full picture, this aspect of technological mediation needs to be considered. For this purpose, we introduce a new scale for measuring transactional distance between students and the learning technology (TDSTECH), comprised of two interrelated dimensions. Reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity suggest a suitable scale. Preliminary inferential analyses are conducted with multiple linear regression and mediation analysis. Regression models show that TDSTECH is the single most important predictor of satisfaction in this population. This may have important implications for practitioners trying design and facilitate satisfying online distance learning experiences. Also, mediator analysis reveals that TDSTECH mediates the relationship between TD student-teacher and satisfaction, but not for TD student-content. Surprisingly, TD student-student shows no significant relationship with satisfaction. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.

The effectiveness of traditional face to face labs versus non-traditional online, remote, or distance labs is difficult to assess due to the lack of continuity in the literature between terminology, standard evaluation metrics, and the use of a wide variety non-traditional laboratory experience for online courses. This narrative review presents a representative view of the existing literature in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of non-traditional laboratories and to highlight the areas of opportunity for research.Non-traditional labs are increasingly utilized in higher education. The research indicates that these non-traditional approaches to a science laboratory experience are as effective at achieving the learning outcomes as traditional labs. While this is an important parameter, this review outlines further important considerations such as operating and maintenance cost, growth potential, and safety. This comparison identifies several weaknesses in the existing literature. While it is clear that traditional labs aid in the development of practical and procedural skills, there is a lack of research exploring if non-traditional laboratory experiments hinder student success in subsequent traditional labs. Additionally, remote lab kits blur the lines between modality by bringing experiences that are more tactile to students outside of the traditional laboratory environment. Though novel work on non-traditional labs continues to be published, investigations are still needed regarding cost differences, acquisition of procedural skills, preparation for advanced work, and instructor contact time between traditional and non-traditional laboratories.

This study presents the main advances made in recent years by an innovative teaching group at the University of Almeria, who are attempting to incorporate alternative spaces for teaching–learning interaction. This group is developing a new line of study to obtain the main vectors for creating an accessible 3D virtual campus on the Second Life platform, recognized as a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE). The goal of this work was to measure the satisfaction and perception of a group of university students. To do this, a co-design approach based on student opinions by relating methodological procedures with an adaptation of the Kano model usually used for product design has been followed. The results found by a panel of postgraduate students in the second stage of the educational project, suggest that the synchronous distance teaching proposal developed can effectively facilitate conciliation of family, work and personal life with online teaching–learning. In the case of undergraduate students with class attendance, the use of the 3D virtual campus is perceived as something more complementary.

Competency-based education in health care requires rigorous standards to ensure professional proficiency. Demonstrating competency in hands-on laboratories calls for effective preparation, knowledge, and experience, all of which can be difficult to achieve using traditional teaching methods. Virtual laboratories are an alternative, cost-effective approach to providing students with sufficient preparatory information. Research on the use of virtual labs in allied health education is limited. The current study investigated the benefits, challenges, and perceived impact of a virtual lab in an allied health program. The sample consisted of 64 students (55 females, 9 males) enrolled in a university medical laboratory science program. A convergent mixedmethods approach (Likert survey, open-ended questions, think-aloud protocol data) revealed that students had positive attitudes towards visual learning, authenticity, learner control, organization, and scaffolding afforded by the virtual lab. Challenges reported included navigational difficulties, an absence of control over content selection, and lack of understanding for certain concepts. Over 90% of students agreed that the virtual lab helped them prepare for hands-on laboratory sessions and that they would use this format of instruction again. Overall, 84% of the students agreed that the virtual lab helped them to achieve greater success in learning.

As the world of technology offers a rapidly increasing number of outlets for creativity and communications, a worldwide education is undergoing a significant renovation. Today, students can have the access to virtual classroom from anywhere, at any time. While E-learning, E-education and remote education are highly encouraged thanks to their obvious advantages, there is a necessity to explore the network service, QoS, organization and structure of these modern teaching-learning approaches. Widely adopted by numerous universities and institutions, the remote distributed virtual laboratory is an important technology for delivering highly efficient and effective E-learning, E-education and remote education in many disciplines. For this reason, in this paper, a number of key problems of this critical technology are discussed, with the goal of providing references and solutions for successful and smooth implementation.

The use of virtual laboratories is growing as companies and educational institutions try to expand their reach, cut costs, increase student understanding, and provide more accessible hands on training for future scientists. Many new higher education initiatives outsource lab activities so students now perform them online in a virtual environment rather than in a classroom setting, thereby saving time and money while increasing accessibility. In this paper we explored whether the learning and motivational outcomes of interacting with a desktop virtual reality (VR) science lab simulation on the internet at home are equivalent to interacting with the same simulation in class with teacher supervision. A sample of 112 (76 female) university biology students participated in a between-subjects experimental design, in which participants learned at home or in class from the same virtual laboratory simulation on the topic of microbiology. The home and classroom groups did not differ significantly on post-test learning outcome scores, or on self-report measures of intrinsic motivation or self-efficacy. Furthermore, these conclusions remained after accounting for prior knowledge or goal orientation. In conclusion, the results indicate that virtual simulations are learning activities that students can engage in just as effectively outside of the classroom environment.

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 can be performed at home with common materials and online support, as well as a capstone project that serves as the main assessment of the lab. After transitioning the lab from face-to-face instruction to a distance format, we compared the capstone project scores of the two lab formats by conducting an analysis of variance, which showed no significant differences in the overall scores. However, our study revealed two areas that need improvements in instruction, namely data analysis and formulating a clear goal or research question. Focus group interviews showed that students in the distance lab did not perceive the capstone project as authentic science and that they would have preferred a campus lab format. Overall our results suggest that the distance project lab discussed here might be an acceptable substitute for a campus lab and might also be suitable for other distance courses in science.

The acceptance of gamified learning environment is rapidly becoming inevitable in educational learning environment. This gives a widespread popularity by deploying Gamification in to present day curriculum as part of a new educational technology tool. This study addresses perception and usage of gamified learning environment from hedonic motivation perspective through incorporating the Hedonic-Motivation System Adoption Model to Gamified Learning Environment. In this study, a model was developed and tested using a Structure Equation Modelling technique. The results show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, enjoyment and control all have a significant positive relationship with behavioural intention of use and focused immersion which indicates that the acceptance of Gamified Learning Environment could serve as a new educational tool to expedite the improvement of pedagogical and instructional technology. Also, increases students' motivation and engagement in learning. On the contrary, we also found a negative relationship exists between enjoyment and focused Immersion. Possible research on the effect of enjoyment on focused immersion in gamification could be another area of concentration. In this study, aside from the introduction, the literature explains the adoption of the gamified learning environment and the hedonic motivation model at the end, the analysis and interpretation of our methodology were discussed.

In the context of distance education, lab and field work are a considerable challenge for students, professors, and institutions. This paper presents a Telepresence Robot Empowered Smart Lab (TRESL) system as a new and emerging technology with a potential to overcome this challenge. The main focus of this paper is to propose a conceptual model, to define the ultimate goals of the proposed solution, and to present its system architecture and the modules to support the functions and features. A pilot project was conducted and is also presented in this paper. The pilot project includes the experimental implementation of a telepresence robot in a mock-up smart lab and the collection and analysis of survey data from users of the robot. The main findings of the pilot study are, 1) online users can easily operate the telepresence robot; and 2) operating the robot manually will increase the engagement of online users with the remote lab environment. The pilot study provides firm evidence that the proposed TRESL system is a promising and innovative approach for online students to conduct their lab work in a remote laboratory. The results also suggest avenues for further research and development of the system.

Training activities in the field of motor and sports sciences have had a remarkable evolution in the last decades in which they have gone from purely technical approaches to more theoretical approaches. Moreover, the advent of telematic universities has expanded these opportunities. In particular, in the degree courses in Motor Sciences it is possible to use virtual reality platforms, inspired by modern video games and able to simulate physical and sports situations with all the possible variables. The present study aims to hypothesize the realization of educational activities using online activities with the application of new technologies through augmented, virtual and robotics reality, with the aim of involving new technological theories in compliance with the law and offer an optimal educational offer for students.