This study used the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to provide a collaborative experience for students from marginalised communities in a large enrollment module in South Africa. The CoI framework consists of three elements including the social, cognitive, and teaching presences. This study focused on the teaching presence element, along with…

This book explores and further expands on the rich history of theoretical and empirical research in open and distributed learning, and addresses the impact of the "data revolution" and the emergence of learning analytics on this increasingly diverse form of educational delivery. Following an introductory chapter that maps the book's…

The purpose of this small-scale qualitative research study was to examine the use and perceived value of integrating collaborative learning techniques at teleconferences at the Hellenic Open University (HOU). Qualitative semi-structure interviews with tutors from the School of Humanities at the HOU were conducted in order for the research plan to…

This investigation explores student teachers' perceptions of and performance using flipped classroom pedagogy (FCP) as a teaching approach in a teacher education course at an Open Distance eLearning university. An explanatory mixed methods design was used, and a pre-test and post-test online survey and Economics blog postings were employed to…

This paper describes a work-in-progress action research project to investigate how technology-enabled learning networks may achieve practical organisational improvement outcomes in the author's own institution, a UK distance learning higher education (HE) context. Collaborative learning technology, typically used for academic learning or…

The context and tools used to create diagrams may hinder or help students in learning how to represent a situation and how to learn about diagramming and the situation at the same time. These equally provide opportunities and challenges to tutors in teaching, assessing and providing feedback on these diagrams, particularly for students studying at…

Nowadays, the virtual learning environment has become an ideal tool for professional self-development and bringing courses for various learner audiences across the world. There is currently an increasing interest in researching the topic of learner dropout and low completion in distance learning, with one of the main concerns being elevated rates…

Today, more and more working adults are opting for the Open Distance Learning (ODL) mode to pursue their tertiary studies as it offers them the flexibility to study anywhere, any time and at one's own pace. But studying at a distance can be problematic for many learners, with the absence of regular traditional face-to-face sessions. Some find it…

Undergraduate language students from the Open University (OU) and master's degree students from Aix-Marseille Université (AMU) participated in an innovative Virtual Exchange (VE) as part of our institutions' internationalisation at home strategy. Due to the pandemic, the one-week Residential School (RS) abroad, which is part of the Bachelor of…

This book demonstrates teachers' and learners' experiences with big data in education; education and cloud computing; and new technologies for teacher support. It also discusses the advantages of using these frontier technologies in teaching and learning and predicts the future challenges. As such, it enables readers to better understand how…

This paper discusses the implementation of a university teaching module, based on Lucy Green's (2008) informal music learning model. The synergy between Green's model and Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy is addressed through explanation of the module and its practices. The module was offered six times, from 2011 to 2016, as an action research…

Purpose: 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…

This research aimed to evaluate of online tutorial program design by applying problem-based learning Research Methods currently implemented in the system of Open Distance Learning (ODL). The students must take a Research Methods course to prepare themselves for academic writing projects. Problem-based learning basically emphasizes the process of…

Environmental Management (EM) is taught in many Higher Education Institutions in the UK. Most this provision is studied full-time on campuses by younger adults preparing themselves for subsequent employment, but not necessarily as environmental managers, and this experience can be very different from the complexities of real-life situations. This…

This article presents a role-play game for software project management (SPM) in a three-dimensional online multiuser virtual world. The Opensimulator platform is used for the creation of an immersive virtual environment that facilitates students' collaboration and realistic interaction, in order to manage unexpected events occurring during the…