The use of technology in higher education science classrooms rose significantly in the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. In many universities, academic programs including introductory physics classes were taken online. Some institutions adopted online learning but also maintained face-to-face (F2F) laboratories when COVID-19 restrictions began to…

The use of fully online (FO) mathematics teaching has been increasing worldwide. Despite claims and findings that mathematics is more challenging to teach FO than face-to-face (F2F), we know little about FO mathematics teaching. In this paper, we address this gap by working to elucidate the differences between teaching in the FO and F2F…

Higher education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines has been in a turbulent period for several decades. Pressures for reform include declining STEM student enrollments, high attrition rates from STEM curricula, and the rise of powerful alternative teaching strategies shown by cognitive science and educational…

The 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic disrupted higher education during spring 2020 by forcing all face-to-face classes to unexpectedly transition to online learning. To better understand how switching to remote learning affected students and the factors that impacted their ability to successfully complete classes, we asked 168 undergraduate…

Through the use of existing grade and student survey data, this study investigated online courses offered at a public four-year university. Specifically, the study explored differences in student success rates between online and face-to-face courses for traditional undergraduate students as well as the climate of student perceptions towards online…

COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world in many ways. It has sparked a prominent pedagogical shift for university level students, as it has changed the way students learn, attend classes, or communicate with teachers. Globally, every student is forced to adopt Emergency Remote Learning (ERL) as a result of immediate transformation of…

This study presents a quasi-experiment to assess differences in student performance and satisfaction between two different delivery modes--online and face-to-face education. We collected data from 747 (373 face-to-face cohort, 374 online cohort) students enrolled in a general education science course at a liberal arts university. There was no…

The use of fully online instruction has been proliferating in higher education. In undergraduate mathematics, arguments about the effectiveness of fully online instruction have been met with contrasting claims about its potential. Some assert that fully online instruction can promote a deeper and richer conceptual understanding of mathematical…

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has forced many institutes of higher learning across the globe to consider alternative modes of providing quality learning for students. However, developing and implementing safe spaces for academic advisement in online platforms that allow college students to explore their environment in an open and curious manner is…

Equity-related issues are a critical contemporary concern in mathematics education, and one specific area that has been taken up deals with equitable instructional modalities. However, the focus of many of these discussions, meetings, and publications is on K-12 mathematics education. This study reports on one aspect of an ongoing, equity issue in…

The pandemic has revived the longstanding debate about the effect of online versus face-to-face instruction on student achievement. The goal of this paper is to provide new evidence on the impact of online versus face-to-face instruction on student learning outcomes, using rich, transcript-level longitudinal data from a public university. We pay…

This article explores how the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic impacted United States higher education over the course of the first year from Spring 2020-Spring 2021. Utilizing a case study methodology, blending proprietary, closely held, public use, and archival data, we find that political and institutional factors shaped the decision to…

This article presents the results of two studies that focus on the role that threaded discussion plays in student learning. Over a period of three and one-half years, researchers conducted a series of surveys of graduate and undergraduate students at a private, nonprofit university in Southwestern Pennsylvania to determine how students viewed the…

Purpose: Following the rapid shift to online learning due to COVID-19, this paper aims to compare the relative efficacy of face-to-face and online university teaching methods. Design/methodology/approach: A scoping review was conducted to examine the learning outcomes within and between online and face-to-face (F2F) university teaching programmes.…

The facilitation of learning by tutors is a worldwide phenomenon that is supported by most open and distance learning (ODL) institutions. It is a strategy employed to achieve academic success. This qualitative intrinsic case study explored the views of tutors at the University of South Africa (Unisa) about the implementation of the Integrated…