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Online Learning Vol 26 Issue 4
Abstract
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As a “gateway” to the psychology major, Introductory Psychology should facilitate student mastery of foundational material and spark future interest in psychology. The current research examined predictors of these key course outcomes in two semesters of a college Introductory Psychology course (N = 508 students). Two studies examined the role of course belonging and engagement (i.e., “gusto” for the course content) in predicting grades and future interest in courses and research, as well as the role of student demographics, relationships, and course impressions in predicting belonging and engagement. Study 1 focused on the end of the semester and found that both belonging and engagement predicted final grades, but engagement was the only unique predictor of future interest. Belonging and engagement were predicted by different student demographic, relationship, and course-impression factors. Study 2 focused on a subsample of students from Study 1 (N = 296) to analyze the role of early belonging and engagement in predicting several outcomes. Early engagement predicted the first exam grade, and early belonging predicted students’ later course impressions (of lectures and discussion sections). Early belonging and engagement predicted end-of-semester belonging and engagement, but student demographic, relationship, and course-impression factors remained unique predictors of end-of-semester belonging and engagement, even controlling for early belonging and engagement. Taken together, these findings indicate that belonging and engagement, both early and at the end of Introductory Psychology, are shaped by different combinations of students’ characteristics, relationships, and course impressions, and have distinct implications for course achievement and continuing interest in psychology.
This study illuminates the experiences of K-12 educators as they strove to (re)build caring relationships with students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted during a graduate course for experienced K-12 teachers in the spring of 2020 at a four-year comprehensive university in the United States. Data was collected from reflective learning journals and asynchronous peer discussions, which captured educators’ experiences as they transitioned to remote learning in real-time. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify pertinent themes. Findings suggest that remote learning revealed relationships in need of repair. Educators practiced authentic care and cultivated connectedness by 1) acting as warm demanders, 2) responding to students’ social-emotional needs, and 3) trying to bridge the digital divide. The article concludes with implications for practice and areas for future research as schools, districts, states, and countries consider the “new normal” in K-12 schooling.
This article describes findings from the Survey of Student Perceptions of Remote Teaching and Learning, which was administered to a random national sample of 1,008 U.S. undergraduates taking for-credit college courses that began with in-person classes and shifted to remote instruction in spring 2020. Course satisfaction levels were much lower after courses moved online, and students recounted an array of barriers to their continued learning. More than 1 in 6 students experienced frequent internet connectivity issues and/or hardware and software problems severe enough to interfere with their ability to continue learning in their courses. Students from all backgrounds struggled to stay motivated and missed getting immediate instructor feedback and collaborating with their fellow students. Students of color and students from lower-income households experienced more challenges than did non-Hispanic White students and students from higher-income households. However, even with the challenges of an unplanned shift to remote learning, a majority of students were at least somewhat satisfied with their learning in the course after COVID, and satisfaction was higher for those courses using more of the practices recommended for effective online instruction.
Like all educational institutions, community colleges rapidly shifted to online instruction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about what factors shaped individual college responses. This survey of distance education leaders (N = 45) in the California community colleges system aimed to: a) characterize pre-COVID distance education resources, emergency responses to the pandemic, and readiness for online instruction in the fall, and b) determine how pre-COVID distance education resources, emergency responses, and fall readiness relate to each other. We find wide variability in pre-COVID distance education resources. These pre-existing resources were related to institutions’ responses: Colleges with fewer pre-COVID resources focused on foundational efforts such as creating online student services, while institutions with greater pre-COVID resources offered somewhat broader responses to training students and faculty in skills to successfully transition online. Finally, although colleges improved their readiness for continued remote instruction in the fall term in terms of training faculty and providing students with technology to access classes, respondents estimated that roughly a third of students would still face barriers accessing remote classes.
In order to be effective, e-learning environments should include a diverse range of pedagogical practices and should focus on active learning student-centered pedagogical. Therefore, it should not be the delivery medium, but rather the instructional methods that facilitate proper learning. Courses that incorporate effective instructional methods will support better learning than courses that do not use effective methods, regardless of the mode of delivery. We compared a traditionally taught face to face Conservation Biology course, Biol 4244/5244, for Biology majors to a fully online asynchronous e-learning course designed using essentially the same materials but varying course delivery. The Biol 4244/4244 course is designated by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as a “writing-intensive course”, where communication is a significant part of the course learning experience. We found no significant differences in learning outcomes, regardless of the method of course delivery. Overall, we feel that this study indicates that online instruction in this type of course is a viable alternative to face-to-face instruction.
The issue addressed here concerns how second language (L2) speaking strategies mediate the relationship between L2 writing strategies and the social presence component of the community of inquiry (CoI) framework within the context of fully online courses that combined learning management system (LMS) for writing tasks and videoconferencing for live classroom discussion. L2 writing strategies related to planning and reviewing contribute to composing tests that students want to upload, present, and discuss, and this sharing is expected to foster classroom social behaviors and consequent language gains. For the current study, a cross-sectional survey of 256 university students was initiated to investigate the mediating effect L2 speaking strategies have on the relationship between L2 writing strategies and social presence. The results indicated positive path coefficients between review strategies and speaking strategies, review strategies and social presence, planning strategies and speaking strategies, and speaking strategies and social presence. Further, speaking strategies explain the relationship between planning strategies and social presence, indicating full mediation. Partial mediation was found for the path between review strategies and social presence. Recognizing how L2 writing and speaking strategies relate to one another and how that relationship influences a CoI illustrates the interconnectivity between language skills. Evidently, increased attention to planning and reviewing strategies results in a final composition worth sharing and discussing, and such sharing and discussion are building blocks to a vibrant social presence.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused universities worldwide to close campuses, forcing millions of teachers and students to resort to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and learning. Though necessary, the sudden move to remote delivery marked a significant departure from the standards and norms in distance education. In Korea, the pandemic coincided with the start of the 2020 academic year. Though ERT was new and unplanned during the first semester of the year, it became Sustained Remote Teaching (SRT) in the second. Through the lens of performance improvement theory, we sought to determine if students' experiences and perceptions with learning remotely via SRT would change over time as a result of institutional preparedness and faculty support/experience. In total, 140 (Spring) and 93 (Fall) exchange students rated their perceptions of Teaching and Learning Processes, Student Support, and Course Structure with their ERT/SRT learning experiences via an electronic survey. An independent-samples one-way ANOVA indicated several statistically significant benchmarks, though results are interpreted as minor real world improvement. Implications for ERT/SRT policy and future research in the context of specific student groups are discussed.
Objective:
To identify stressors affecting international students' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants:
Twenty-two international students from 10 countries and 17 US institutions participated.
Methods:
Participants were recruited from a larger study examining the wellbeing of young adults during the pandemic.
Results:
Four main stressors were identified: (1) Uncertainty and anxiety induced by decisions and policies in response to COVID-19; (2) Fears regarding xenophobia; (3) Limited understanding by educators and school staff of international students' unique challenges; (4) Greater awareness of racial and cultural identity.
Conclusion:
The pandemic has contributed to additional stressors for international students. Educators and mental health professionals may help support international students' mental health by gaining basic knowledge about common stressors and directly acknowledging the challenges, educating international students on race and racism and supporting anti-racism efforts, and encouraging the creation of shared affinity spaces and increasing psychoeducation to promote resilience.
COVID-19 disrupted face-to-face instruction across university campuses world-wide. As universities struggled, instructional design teams stepped in to assist. At one southeastern university in the US, an instructional design team, with support from instructional systems analysts, responded by creating online instruction for faculty and facilitating training during the summer months in 2020. Literature outlining multiple perspectives and best practices for online instruction prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic is robust; however, provides little to no guidance for implementing empirically based practice during a time of worldwide crisis. Many educational institutions recognised the need to provide a timely response to ensure continuity and quality of education yet lacked a framework or model from which to follow. This mixed methods study reviews best practices for designing and implementing virtual training for faculty and determines to what extent best practices were followed for this shift during a time of crisis. The use of a survey and semi-structured interviews with the instructional design team and instructional systems analysts resulted in four themes: prioritising faculty needs, responsiveness to faculty, lack of time, and difficulties collaborating across departments. Alignment to pre-pandemic best practice literature is provided to demonstrate the response of one university to the pandemic. Implications for instructional design teams and future research directions are presented.
In order to understand the nature of online student support services during the COVID-19 pandemic, 31 chief online officers representing a range of colleges and universities were interviewed in late Spring 2020. Findings highlighted issues of access and equity in online student support services, the rapid expansion of student services due to the pandemic, and how strength in online programming enabled a more seamless pivot to emergency remote operations. This study adds texture to the literature on the gaps between support services offered to face-to-face versus online students, and also provides a foundation for important questions regarding the future of online student support after COVID-19. The study also begins a dialog into the long-term ramifications of siloing online organizational units at institutions of higher education.
The article begins with a review of the shared metacognition construct and its function within the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework. The primary focus of the shared metacognition construct is the role of learners to take responsibility and control for monitoring and managing learning in a community of inquiry. Pragmatic challenges are explored through an analysis of recent research and a discussion of implementation issues. It is emphasized that shared metacognition is shaped by the teaching presence construct (planning, facilitation, and direction instruction) and its overlap with cognitive presence operationalized by the phases of the Practical Inquiry model (problem defining, exploration, integration, and resolution). The manuscript concludes with a discussion of the potential for future research associated with shared metacognition and the use of a quantitative shared metacognition questionnaire.
This study investigated the impact of using a discussion strategy with learning analytics on the level of student cognitive presence and interaction. The study used a quasi-experimental design with control and experimental groups. The experimental group applied open-ended discussion and elaborated feedback with learning analytics while the control group applied open-ended discussion and elaborated feedback without learning analytics. A mixed-method approach was used in this study. Data were collected through content analysis, social network analysis (SNA), and interviews. The results showed that the level of cognitive presence in the experimental group increased more than the control group. SNA revealed that students in the experimental group developed more cognitive learning ties with their peers during the process of developing cognitive presence. Interview data showed that students found that the discussion strategy with learning analytics made them aware of their level and quality of interaction and their role in building knowledge in an online learning community. In addition, they felt that the discussion strategy with learning analytics increased their motivation to participate in the discussion. This study provides recommendations on how students can enhance their cognitive presence and learning experience in an online learning community.
Within the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, cognitive presence has been central to success in higher education settings. This systematic review examined 24 articles published between 2008-2020 that empirically analyzed cognitive presence in online courses. We share the patterns that emerged regarding the interplay between teaching and cognitive presence and social and cognitive presence. We also explore how the four phases of cognitive presence-triggering event, exploration, integration, and resolution-were evident within specific instructional activities. We conclude with implications for practice that will be helpful for course instructors and designers seeking to foster greater cognitive presence within their online courses.
The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework describes three essential presences (i.e., teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence) and how these presences interact in providing an educational experience in online and blended learning environments. This meta-analysis examined 19 empirical studies on the CoI Presences (teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence) and their correlations with learning outcomes, including actual learning, perceived learning, and satisfaction. It was found that teaching presence and actual learning were moderately positively correlated, (r = .353). There was a weak correlation between cognitive presence and actual learning, (r = .250) and social presence and actual learning, (r = .199). For the correlation between the presences and perceived learning, cognitive presence and perceived learning was found to be strongly correlated, (r = .663), followed by the moderate correlation between social presence and perceived learning (r = .432), and teaching presence and perceived learning, (r = .392). With respect to satisfaction, the correlation between cognitive presence and satisfaction (r = .586), and between teaching presence and satisfaction was strong (r = .510), but the correlation between social presence and satisfaction was moderate (r = .447). The findings have implications for designers and instructors who design and teach online and blended courses to include these presences.
Introduction
The potential benefits of supportive interactions on social networking sites on adolescents’ mental health are promising; however, no systematic evaluation has been conducted on this topic. This review examined empirical research on the relationship between social support derived from social networking sites and adolescents’ mental health both theoretically and empirically.
Methods
Followed PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic literature search on six English and three Chinese databases in February 2020. Four thousand one hundred and seventy‐seven articles were screened first by title, then abstract, and lastly, full articles.
Results
Fourteen studies (five English and nine Chinese) were identified, with total sample of 11,616 adolescents (age: 10–19 years; females: 42.7%–56.3%). Meta‐analysis showed that the correlation of online social support with self‐esteem was moderate and significant (r = .29), but with depression was small and insignificant (r = −.09). Sensitivity analysis indicated that social support from acquaintances on the internet may not be as beneficial as from real‐life acquaintances. Despite that there isn't enough research on other specific mental health outcomes to run a quantitative synthesis, individual studies suggest that online social support (OSS) may be associated with increased self‐identity and life satisfaction, decreased loneliness and social anxiety, it also counteracts the negative effect of stress and cyberbullying on mental health.
Conclusions
OSS might be beneficial for adolescents' mental health, especially self‐esteem, although the causal relationship requires longitudinal studies to confirm, and the underlying mechanisms need further investigation.
The temporary shift from face-to-face instruction to online teaching at North American universities as an alternative solution in response to the COVID-19 pandemic brought significant challenges to international students who had to study abroad from their home countries. Studies on how international students perceive their study-abroad-from-home experiences in such an emergency remote teaching (ERT) context remain scarce. Through the lens of Community of Inquiry and an additional perspective of emotional presence, this study explored 13 first-year international graduate students’ perceptions and experiences of their learning in ERT. Based on the analyses of the pre-learning questionnaire survey results and a series of three reflection journal entries, the study finds that teaching presence has played a vital role in shaping students’ understanding and experiences when they participated in a study-abroad graduate program from their home countries. In addition, the participants demonstrated mixed emotions of both frustration and appreciation/thankfulness as well as an isolation–connectedness emotional trajectory during their learning process. The study inspires an exploration of more diverse options for international education programs and continued effort in providing institutional support to ensure better learning experiences in a post-COVID community of inquiry.
In response to public scrutiny of data-driven algorithms, the field of data science has adopted ethics training and principles. Although ethics can help data scientists reflect on certain normative aspects of their work, such efforts are ill-equipped to generate a data science that avoids social harms and promotes social justice. In this article, I argue that data science must embrace a political orientation. Data scientists must recognize themselves as political actors engaged in normative constructions of society and evaluate their work according to its downstream impacts on people's lives. I first articulate why data scientists must recognize themselves as political actors. In this section, I respond to three arguments that data scientists commonly invoke when challenged to take political positions regarding their work. In confronting these arguments, I describe why attempting to remain apolitical is itself a political stance—a fundamentally conservative one—and why data science's attempts to promote “social good” dangerously rely on unarticulated and incrementalist political assumptions. I then propose a framework for how data science can evolve toward a deliberative and rigorous politics of social justice. I conceptualize the process of developing a politically engaged data science as a sequence of four stages. Pursuing these new approaches will empower data scientists with new methods for thoughtfully and rigorously contributing to social justice.
The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the development and implementation of online education in higher education institutions around the globe. Online lecturing to large groups has been part of this acceleration. The problem is that synchronous face-to-face lectures and synchronous online lectures are widely criticized for reinforcing the hegemony of instructor-centered traditional approaches and rarely involving instructor-student and student-student argumentative interaction. This study aimed to provide evidence that online informal formative assessment (OIFA) can be used to provide undergraduates with explicit opportunities to participate in instructor-student argumentative interaction. An OIFA-based pedagogical strategy was implemented amidst the Covid-19 pandemic in the online lecturing sessions of a science course with 76 undergraduates (40 females and 36 males, 16–23 years old) in Colombia. It was found that OIFA can contribute to instructor-student argumentative interaction as well as to being able to better address undergraduate learning needs. Practical implications for university science education in the pandemic and post-pandemic eras are discussed.
Social learning analytics (SLA) is a promising approach for identifying students’ social learning processes in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments. To identify the main characteristics of SLA, gaps and future opportunities for this emerging approach, we systematically identified and analyzed 36 SLA-related studies conducted between 2011 and 2020. We focus on SLA implementation and methodological characteristics, educational focus, and the studies’ theoretical perspectives. The results show the predominance of SLA in formal and fully online settings with social network analysis (SNA) a dominant analytical technique. Most SLA studies aimed to understand students’ learning processes and applied the social constructivist perspective as a lens to interpret students’ learning behaviors. However, (i) few studies involve teachers in developing SLA tools, and rarely share SLA visualizations with teachers to support teaching decisions; (ii) some SLA studies are atheoretical; and (iii) the number of SLA studies integrating more than one analytical approach remains limited. Moreover, (iv) few studies leveraged innovative network approaches (e.g., epistemic network analysis, multimodal network analysis), and (v) studies rarely focused on temporal patterns of students’ interactions to assess how students’ social and knowledge networks evolve over time. Based on the findings and the gaps identified, we present methodological, theoretical and practical recommendations for conducting research and creating tools that can advance the field of SLA.
We compared discussion posts from a data science ethics MOOC that was hosted on two platforms. We characterized one platform as “open” because learners can respond to discussion prompts while viewing and responding to others. We characterized the other platform as “locked” because learners must respond to a discussion prompt before they can view and respond to others. Our objective is to determine whether these platform differences are consequential and have the potential to impact learning. We analyzed direct responses to two discussion prompts from two modules located in modules two and six of an eight module course. We used conventional content analysis to derive codes directly from the data. Posts on the “open” platform were characterized by failure to completely address the prompt and showed evidence of persuasion tactics and reflective activity. Posts on the “locked” platform were characterized by an apparent intent to complete the task and an assertive tone. Posts on the “locked” platform also showed a diversity of ideas through the corpus of responses. Our findings show that MOOC platform interfaces can lead to qualitative differences in discussion posts in ways that have the potential to impact learning. Our study provides insight into how “open” and “locked” platform designs have the potential to shape ways that learners respond to discussion prompts in MOOCs. Our study offers guidance for instructors making decisions on MOOC platform choice and activities situated within a learning experience.We used conventional content analysis to derive codes directly from the data. Posts on the “open” platform were characterized by failure to completely address the prompt and showed evidence of persuasion tactics and reflective activity. Posts on the “locked” platform were characterized by an apparent intent to complete the task and an assertive tone. Posts on the “locked” platform also showed a diversity of ideas through the corpus of responses. Our findings show that MOOC platform interfaces can lead to qualitative differences in discussion posts in ways that have the potential to impact learning. Our study provides insight into how “open” and “locked” platform designs have the potential to shape ways that learners respond to discussion prompts in MOOCs. Our study offers guidance for instructors making decisions on MOOC platform choice and activities situated within a learning experience.
Discussion is an essential component in case-based learning (CBL), as it offers students the opportunity to consider diverse perspectives, clarify confusion, and construct understanding. As a facilitator bears most of the responsibility for the overall success of CBL, understanding how facilitation strategies influence interactions during discussions is worthwhile. However, previous CBL facilitation research has primarily considered student perspectives during case discussions, without examining relationships between facilitator experience and student interaction and participation. This study combined social network analysis and content analysis to compare the structure of expert and novice instructors’ discussion posts and to consider their relationship to student participation and interaction in online case discussions. Results showed that both the expert and novice instructors used facilitation strategies involving social congruence, cognitive congruence, and content expertise frequently in the discussions; however, when and how they used a combination of these strategies was noticeably different. These differences influenced student interaction. More specifically, students tended to interact with others more actively and densely as a result of questions initiated by the expert facilitator. Suggestions are provided for novice facilitators.
Institutions of higher education play a critical role in bridging academia and workforce, yet college students find it challenging to transfer their learning across and beyond instructional formats, including online, hybrid, and face-to-face. The goals of this exploratory, sequential, mixed-methods study were to (1) explore graduate students’ conceptualizations of transfer, and (2) examine online pedagogical practices for enhancing transfer. Participants included students enrolled in a full-time online graduate degree program in education at a private university in the Mid-Atlantic USA. Findings from the qualitative phase with seven semi-structured interviews were used to design a survey study with 68 graduate students to explore their perceptions of effective online pedagogical practices for enhancing transfer. This study is significant since its findings revealed a number of online practices that instructional designers and faculty can use to optimize learning and transfer in higher education.
Embedded within advice for starting simple with online, blended, or technology-enhanced teaching are practices that can be troublesome for some faculty who are learning to teach this way. For example, embedded within the principle of a clear, organized, navigable course can be the concept of chunking content into modules, the skills associated with screen casting and posting a course tour, and the practice of socializing students to the course organization through demonstration, explanation, and reinforcement. This empirical-qualitative study collected 123 cases of troublesome knowledge from 41 participants and analyzed them through Perkins’ troublesome knowledge framework. Results include subcategories and common themes across cases of inert, ritual, conceptually difficult, tacit, and foreign/alien knowledge. From these results, we recommend that faculty development approaches should take specific aspects and cases of troublesome knowledge into consideration for online teaching preparation.
Online learning has traditionally relied on asynchronous text-based communication. The COVID-19 pandemic, though, has provided many faculty members with new and/or additional experience using synchronous video-based communication. Questions remain, though, about how this experience will shape online teaching and learning in the future. We conducted a mixed method study to investigate faculty perceptions of using synchronous video-based communication technology. In this paper, we present the results of our inquiry and implications for future research and practice.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational institutions worldwide to adopt e-learning. UAE higher education institutions have implemented e-learning systems and programs to cope with this unprecedented situation. This paper measured the strength of association between key aspects of e-learning systems and programs and students’ motivation to learn in Ajman University (AU). Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was used to test the internal consistency reliability of key aspects of e-learning (EL-8) and students’ motivation to learn (SML-16). Exploratory factor analysis was used to test the validity of, and coherence of patterns in, the data. Parametric and non-parametric methods were used to investigate the strength of association between key aspects of e-learning and students’ motivation to learn in AU. The results indicated that motivation variables were more strongly correlated with both e-teaching materials and e-assessments key aspects relative to others such as e-discussion, and e-grade checking and feedback.
When the novel coronavirus 2019 caused many schools to immediately go online in March 2020, many instructors had significant training and experience teaching residentially but little to no experience teaching online courses. All classes were immediately converted to online, and some schools are still uncertain as to when they will return to full traditional classroom settings. Regardless of online experience, all instructors were needed to learn to adapt to online teaching immediately. This change created a need for all faculty members to receive the training and support necessary to make the online process as smooth and effective as possible. In this Best Practices perspective, we identified useful and successful practices to help students learn in the online courses. With the knowledge of data driven support and awareness of effective online teaching strategies, instructors can make the most of online teaching sessions.
Learning Analytics (LA) is evolving learning into a new era of analyzing student’s participation and engagement in order to gain some insights. The implementation of LA in a university helps the administration and faculty associates to observe the progress of the students alongside their rate of success. The purpose of this study is to develop a student’s engagement model for holistic involvement in the Learning Management System (LMS). The model was developed from an initial model that was derived from the review of literature and existing model of engagement in LMS. The data were collected from the online learning management system of one public University in Malaysia. From the data analysis, it was found that the strong engagement and interaction between the students, lecturers and the content in LMS, led to boost up the usage of the LMS as long as the student participation in the learning environment is accepted, which in return prepared the students to be evaluated anytime. The model that will be developed from this study can help increase the interaction and engagement between lecturers and students in LMS. Unlike the engagement of students in higher education LMS, which has been discussed already in the literature, this research integrated the role of trace data in shaping the learning environment communication and participation of the users.
Although instructional designers are experienced and positioned to be leaders in online learning, it was not previously known how organizational structures influenced their ability to act as leaders in their institutions. This problem warranted a deep exploration of the organizational structures for instructional design teams in higher education. This qualitative, multi-case study consisted of three individual universities each with a different organizational structure profile. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis with participants in three key roles at each institution: dedicated instructional designer, online faculty member, and online learning administrator. The research culminated in within-case analyses of each institution and a comparative case analysis of all three studied institutions. The results of the study revealed that the organizational structure that most positively influenced instructional design leadership was a centralized instructional design team with academic reporting lines. Decentralized instructional designers experienced significant disempowerment, role misperception, and challenges in advocacy and leadership, while instructional designers with administrative reporting lines experienced a high level of role misperception specifically related to technology support. Positional parity between dedicated instructional designers and faculty, in conjunction with implementation of the recommended organizational structure, was found to be critical to empowering designers to be partners and leaders.
Instagram as an Education Platform for EFL Learners
Using three interdependent constructs: social, cognitive, and teaching presence, the Community of Inquiry framework is a theoretical process model of online learning. Specifically, teaching presence contains three sub-elements—(a) facilitation of discourse, (b) direct instruction, and (c) instructional design and organization—that work together to create a collaborative-constructivist learning environment. Data from the Community of Inquiry survey from 160 learners in 11 course sections were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine whether statistically significant differences existed in teaching presence scores between sections of two online courses with identical course design taught by different instructors. Results showed significant differences between individual instructors’ teaching presence scores for each of the two courses. Specifically, significant differences were found in each sub-element of teaching presence except for one course’s instructional design and organization. Conceptual and methodological explanations of the findings are provided, and implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
In this study we looked at how participation in a peer-review process for online Statistics courses utilizing a master course model at a major research university affects instructor innovation and instructor presence. We used online, anonymous surveys to collect data from instructors who participated in the peer-review process, and we used descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis to analyze the data. Our findings indicate that space for personal pedagogical agency and innovation is perceived as limited because of the master course model. However, responses indicate that participating in the process was overall appreciated for the sense of community it helped to build. Results of the study highlight the blurred line between formative and summative assessment when using peer review of instruction, and they also suggest that innovation and presence are difficult to assess through short term observation and through a modified version of a tool (i.e., the Quality Matters rubric) intended for the evaluation of an online course rather than the instruction of that course. The findings also suggest that we may be on the cusp of a second stage for peer review in an online master course model, whether in-person or online. Our findings also affirm the need for creating a sense of community online for the online teaching faculty. The experiences of our faculty suggest that peer review can serve as an integral part of fostering a departmental culture that leads to a host of intangible benefits including trust, reciprocity, belonging, and, indeed, respect.
This study examined the student experience (n=507) during emergency remote learning at a medium-sized private southeastern university during the COVID-19 pandemic, leveraging the Social Presence Model (SPM) as a guiding framework. Tensions were high at this critical time as students were stressed with financial burdens, supply shortages, overlapping work and educational schedules, and shared technological resources and physical spaces. Therefore, this study helps educators better understand students’ emotional needs and experiences during the March 2020 lockdown transition to remote learning. Specifically, examining the student experience in a time of crisis offers critical lessons about the importance of connectedness, online readiness, cultivating relationships, adaptability during transitions, and class interaction. The data revealed the depth of anxiety felt by students and suggests the need for increased empathy, communication, interaction, and flexibility from their instructor and course community to proceed with academic coursework, particularly for first-year college students. The findings elevate the importance of social presence as a literacy for learning in any modality, underscore the need to support the mental health of our students, and stress the urgency for online and remote learning readiness for current and future public emergencies.
The Covid-19 pandemic has presented an opportunity for rethinking assumptions about education in general and higher education in particular. In the light of the general crisis the pandemic caused, especially when it comes to the so-called emergency remote teaching (ERT), educators from all grades and contexts experienced the necessity of rethinking their roles, the ways of supporting the students' learning tasks and the image of students as self-organising learners, active citizens and autonomous social agents. In our first Postdigital Science and Education paper, we sought to distil and share some expert advice for campus-based university teachers to adapt to online teaching and learning. In this sequel paper, we ask ourselves: Now that campus-based university teachers have experienced the unplanned and forced version of Online Learning and Teaching (OLT), how can this experience help bridge the gap between online and in-person teaching in the following years? The four experts, also co-authors of this paper, interviewed aligning towards an emphasis on pedagogisation rather than digitalisation of higher education, with strategic decision-making being in the heart of post-pandemic practices. Our literature review of papers published in the last year and analysis of the expert answers reveal that the 'forced' experience of teaching with digital technologies as part of ERT can gradually give place to a harmonious integration of physical and digital tools and methods for the sake of more active, flexible and meaningful learning.
Project-based learning (PjBL) engages students in knowledge acquisition, application, and construction through artefact development. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, this study characterized college students' social and cognitive presences in online PjBL and examined how presence was related to their academic performance. Twenty-four groups of students participated in a 3-week project via WeChat discussion groups and created a final product. Transcripts of students' online discourse were collected and analysed by a coding scheme. The quality of students' artefacts was evaluated by a grading rubric. Descriptive results showed that the component of affectiveness and the level of exploration accounted for the majority of students' social and cognitive presences, respectively. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that certain components and sub-components of students' social presence, and levels and sub-levels of their cognitive presence were positively associated with their academic performance. Practical implications for teachers and suggestions for further research are provided.
Lay Description
What is already known about this topic
• Social and cognitive presences predict academic performance in non-project-based online learning.
What this paper adds
• Various components of social presence predict group artefact performance in online project-based learning.
• Different levels of cognitive presence predict group artefact performance in online project-based learning.
Implications for practice and/or policy
• Students should acquire basic content knowledge before participating in online project-based discussions.
• Teachers might consider assisting students with the direction of online project-based discussions.
This article applies the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to a particular disciplinary context: first-year writing (FYW). Students enrolled in online FYW courses across three institutions (n = 272) completed a version of the CoI survey that was slightly modified to fit the disciplinary context of writing studies. A factor analysis was conducted to determine how well the CoI in Writing Studies data aligned with typical CoI survey research; teaching presence and cognitive presence loaded onto single factors, but the social presence items divided into multiple factors. The authors put their findings in conversation with other scholarship about social presence, especially Carlon et al. (2012) and Kreijns et al. (2014), and advocate for differentiating between survey items that relate to “social presence,” “social comfort,” “attitude,” and “social learning.” They also recommend that future disciplinary uses of the CoI Survey include survey items that ask students to report on the extent to which they engaged in the types of social learning that the discipline values.
While technology use is becoming increasingly common in education, teachers remain reluctant to use technology and hesitant on how best to incorporate it into their teaching and practice. There is a strong demand from institutions for English language teachers to cope with the changing landscape of teaching in the twenty-first century. This explorative study investigated Hong Kong tertiary teachers' beliefs on continuing professional development activities to enhance their teaching. The study had a two-phase research design, with an initial questionnaire (N = 58) followed by semi-structured interviews (N = 12) to unpack the participants' hidden voices. The findings illustrated that most teachers are enthusiastic about professional development activities, though there is a misalignment between what universities value and reward and what teachers see as most beneficial for enhancing their teaching practices. The results suggested that professional development activities should focus on sharing good teaching practices (e.g., informal chats, mentoring) within universities rather than rewarding attending conferences and nonintegrated workshops.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced schools worldwide to suddenly transition to remote learning. The change forced students, who might not choose to take distance education courses, to adjust to a new way of completing their coursework. Further, this impacted certain student groups like exchange students more adversely since distance courses complicated academic exchanges by rendering short-term exchange students isolated on an empty campus in a foreign country, all while recently arriving to both. There are many intrinsic hardships to academic exchanges but there is a lack of research on exchange students' experiences learning online when immediately transitioning from face-to-face courses to emergency remote or online courses under such circumstances. This exploratory descriptive study investigated exchange students' experiences learning online during the COVID19 pandemic in the Republic of Korea. 140 exchange students responded to a survey about their experiences and perceptions of their online courses. The quantitative results in this study show a relatively ambivalent experience in terms of quality Teaching and Learning Processes, Course Structure, and Student Support, although students had both good and bad experiences. Qualitative data provided insight into the desired but missing aspects of exchange students' ERT experiences: communication from faculty, interaction with other students, and feedback on their work.
This article presents the results of a research carried out in July-October 2011 throughout Europe for obtaining an overview on the usage of social networks (SNs) in the autonomous professional development of language teachers. The survey aimed at obtaining results in the following areas: most frequently used SNs, the components of professional development in which they are used, advantages and disadvantages of SNs, gender-based preferences, extent to which teachers have created a personal learning network (PLN) through the usage of SNs, extent of participation in training sessions / webinars, following tutorials as a result of involvement in a SN, self-assessment of the influence of SNs on professional development. The survey was answered by 174 teachers of mainly English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish as a foreign language. The research has been performed within the aPLaNet project. The aPLaNet project,co funded by the European Union (grant agreement no. 511460-LLP-2010-TR-KA2MP / 2010 / 4139), focuses on enabling foreign language teachers to create their own PLN and to become more familiar with ICT tools that can be used both for professional development (establishing contacts with other colleagues and experts, using new tools) and also for classroom activities with learners. The project also makes available for foreign language teachers a mentoring programme for improving ICT and social networking skills. Based on the results of this research, a series of guides, videos and papers have been created that show language educators the meaning of PLNs at a personal level. The recommendations and guidelines on which these instruments have been created are presented in the final section of the article.
Although the global Covid-19 pandemic is still affecting our lives enormously, we know that a new era of deep reflection about ‘normality’, our planet and our existence on it has also begun. The ‘Education in Europe and the Covid-19 Pandemic’ double Special Issue intends to be part of this reflexive discussion about the post-pandemic European education policy and research space. This is a space shaped continuously by crises and opportunities, by utopias of a shared progressive and liberal education for all, but also the dystopias of nationalism, populism, climate destruction and now a global health emergency. This editorial offers an overview of the current crisis context and of the articles; further, it positions the journal within the post-pandemic research and policy debate about how to understand the impact of the pandemic on the changing forms of education and its enduring inequalities.
Drawing on longitudinal research with 33 Chinese international students in 10 European countries, this article examines their polymorphic identifications towards homeland and asks how these changing perceptions constitute the underlying logic of their particular migration aspirations during the COVID-19. Specifically, the article explores how homeland identifications function as a driving force to facilitate ‘voluntary immobility’ in the study destination while being used as a tackling strategy to adapt to their ‘involuntary immobility’ overseas. It also examines how these identifications articulate with the students’ mixing and shifting migration aspirations formulated during the pandemic. In doing so, the article demonstrates that polymorphic perceptions closely relate to the generation, exercise and reproduction of their migration aspirations that are temporally distributed.
Discussions play an important role in supporting problem solving during case-based instruction (CBI). Yet, little research has considered how students purposefully use online case discussions to support problem solving. Using a multiple case study approach, we examined how the content covered in three online discussions supported students' individual problem solving during CBI. Using a modified version of Jonassen’s (1997) ill-structured problem-solving framework, we coded all discussion postings to understand individual problem-solving processes. Next, we conducted interviews with six students to gain deeper insights into their participation intentions. Findings revealed while the students collaboratively covered all aspects of the problem-solving process, individually, their approaches did not always cover all phases. Individuals with strong problem-solving presence valued discussions as an important part of the learning process, were willing to invest time engaging in the discussion, and maintained a consistent presence. Additionally, as problem-solving presence decreased, learners' perceived barriers increased. Strategies for boosting individual problem-solving processes are discussed.
The study attempts to determine whether or not Facebook is an environment suiting the Community of Inquiry Framework by investigating the cognitive, social, and teaching presence perceptions of students in Facebook groups and to examine the impact of group size on the CoI model. Additionally, whether or not these three types of presences predicted academic success and motivation were investigated. The data were analyzed through logistic regression analysis, independent samples t-test and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The study was conducted in a blended course, where Facebook was utilized for online discussions. The study revealed that the relation between cognitive, social, and teaching presences was significant and at a high-level. The high correlation determined among the social, cognitive, and teaching presence perceptions of students in learning communities created on Facebook leads to the consideration that Facebook is a suitable online environment for the COI framework. It is understandable, that all presence perceptions are higher in smaller groups when group impacts are investigated. Other conclusions derived from the study are that academic success was only predicted by cognitive presence and motivation was predicted by both cognitive and teaching presences. Key words: academic success, cognitive presence, Facebook, motivation, social presence, teaching presence.
The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has compelled to shut down all levels of educational institutions worldwide for a particular time. The pandemic has forced educators and institutions to rapidly switching from classroom teaching to online teaching. The changes in teaching strategies have led both teachers and students into sudden multifaced challenges. Consequently, Bangladesh has closed down all classroom teaching and adapted online system education using different digital platforms. This opinion review has outlined some challenges and opportunities of online in Bangladesh as a representative of developing countries. This paper has further reviewed underlined vital factors in the university system of developing countries that may contribute to paradigm shifts in the education system in the modern competitive world.
According to dominant perspectives on educational mobilities, India is not an obvious study destination choice and more so not a favoured one for students from South Korea. The aim of this paper is to question this prevalent discourse by drawing attention to the small-sized but rather steady flow of Korean students who have gone to Indian universities for both short-term and long-term educational programmes. Obviously, this unique but underexplored phenomenon is at odds with the prevailing episteme surrounding international student mobilities (ISM) focused on the ‘world-class’ imaginary and East–West, South–North binaries. By presenting empirical data on and from Korean degree-seeking students in India, this study offers fertile understanding of student experiences and imaginings of transformations – those that take place in what have been typecast as ‘peripheral’ study destinations such as India. Drawing on critical scholarship on ISM, this paper seeks to find out what changes and shifts are generated in and through the periphery as a place of study. In particular, it asks: what discourses on transformation do students construct as they experience, imagine and desire changes in their lives through their everyday encounters with and negotiation of India? How are these transformations articulated and how do these articulations, in turn, manifest (de)
constructed views of place, of self and of others? And, lastly, how do these narratives shape the broader discourse on educational mobilities and study abroad? In approaching these questions, this paper introduces diverse discourses on ‘everyday transformations’ articulated by students through comparison, contradiction and conjecture.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic provided the opportunity for institutions of higher education (IHEs) increase their use of online instructional delivery models and tools. Instructional designers played a role in supporting instructors to make this transition. This support included professional learning opportunities in the form of workshops and coaching. The purpose of this study was to investigate instructional designers’ shifting thinking about the professional learning experiences they are providing and will provide for instructors in IHEs during pandemic and beyond. Six instructional designers from four universities participated in two focus groups for this study. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Instructional designers in this study viewed professional learning during the pandemic as a time to address what they saw as persistent problems with online learning. Moreover, they indicated a willingness to engage in extended faculty development to explore mutually identified challenges with online teaching and learning in their contexts.
Increasingly, graduate student instructors (GSIs) teach online without prior formal training on how to design online assessments of learning and participation. We present findings from a collective case study of seven GSIs at a university in the United States of America to describe how these novice online instructors learned to enact assessment strategies in an online classroom. Findings reveal that the GSIs were influenced by professional learning networks such as peer communities of practice, the academic Twitter community, student feedback, and faculty gatekeeping of institutional resources and policies. With limited institutional and departmental support, the GSIs struggled to transform their face-to-face assessments to leverage technology but leaned on their professional judgment to prioritize traditional discussion and participation structures. Findings inform our understanding of how universities might prioritize professional learning networks on online teaching at differing institutional levels to increase GSIs’ access to online teaching information and knowledgeable role models.