The move to digital, and now hybrid, education has defamiliarised teaching practices and unsettled experiences of what it means to be and to engage at university. In this article, I examine what new questions evolving teaching and learning practices provoke with regards rethinking notions of the body, and concepts of presence and absence.…

E-learning platforms are becoming more and more important and they are gradually changing people's learning ways. In the e-learning platforms, users actively create and join their favorite communities to share their questions and ideas. With the increase of users of e-learning platforms, the number of communities is increasing dramatically. In…

One of the main characteristics of distance education is the absence of face-to-face interaction with instructor and learner as well as learner and learner. The purpose of this article is to explore the issue of social presence and the various innovations used to foster a social presence with distance education programs.

Being a family carer can be rewarding but can also lead to mental and physical exhaustion as well as feelings of social exclusion and isolation. Research has shown that the use of the Internet and online forums can provide an immediate place to find information and reassurance and that forum use can be an empathetic place to share experiences and…

Sociocultural theories of learning and sociocultural theories of technology are explored as a way to view and to map the complex interactions that can occur in online professional discussions. The case of synchronous online moderation meetings are used as an example of the combination of variables that can impact on the development of shared…

This article documents the experiences of three early career academics trying to establish a network of early career academics (ECAs) in a middle-ranked university in Australia. The changing context of academia means that ECAs face considerable challenges in understanding and negotiating effective career paths. Some of the issues encountered…

It is argued that online discussion is a useful tool for creating opportunities for learning in teacher education. In a project designed to improve the practicum in rural areas, researchers placed pre-service teachers (PSTs) in two different moderated online discussion forums: an unstructured personal blog space and a structured threaded…

A large proportion of students in higher education report feeling bored during lectures, for example, Mann and Robinson (2009) put this figure at 60 per cent. This short article reviews our experiences of using a simple, free Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, Skype, to enhance the interest and engagement of students by holding a…

This review examines research of computer-mediated small group discussion of literature. The goal of this review is to explore several instructional formats for integrating print-based and new literacies skills. First, the theoretical foundations for the shift from teacher-led to student led discussion are outlined. Research exploring ways in…

A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is a model for delivering learning content online to any person who wants to take a course, with no limit on attendance. The MOOC industry is growing rapidly, fueled by students interested in free higher-education learning, and the universities and venture capitalists willing to fund the courses. This paper…

The authors critically analyze how the concept of the drama triangle--part of the game theory associated with transactional analysis--can be used by post secondary instructors teaching online to build a sense of community and decrease students' dependence on instructors in discussion forums. The article begins with an overview of sense of…

This paper presents results from using an asynchronous Web-based discussion forum coupled with an integrated student peer rating system as one component of an introductory Information Systems (IS) course with high enrollment (e.g. a class with over 100 students). There are two major issues with the typical introductory IS course: it covers too…

Participation is a complex process, engaging the whole person, implying cognitive, emotional and relational aspects. In online open and distant learning, group work is a commonly used strategy, given its collaborative nature and constructivist framework ([Bates and Poole, 2003], [Garrison and Anderson, 2003] and [Jonassen, 2005]). In this context,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a very difficult, yet all important and ongoing research question--how do we best use online collaborative learning modalities (CLM) to supplement conversations in multicultural education courses? Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative study examined emergent themes in asynchronous…

This article explores the use of multiple digital tools for mediating communications, drawing on two recent empirical studies in which students and researchers in UK higher education worked on collaborative activities: how different tools were used and the quality of the communications and their contributions to collaborative working and knowledge…