This paper explores the experiences of university educators who use personal learning networks (PLNs) to enhance professional knowledge. With growing expectations to design and deliver effective online learning experiences, the PLN may offer flexible and supportive professional learning opportunities that build digital pedagogical capabilities.…

Nursing has employed distance education for decades. In the 21st century, distance programs have often been delivered online. This became even more prevalent since the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the preponderance of online nursing courses, the delivery of courses virtually does not necessarily mean that these offerings are intentionally developed…

Isolation can affect our well-being negatively. To prevent the spread of the infection COVID-19, many workers, including university lecturers, are required to work from home. In order to maintain high levels of well-being and team cohesion, academics at the University of Derby Online Learning initiated a virtual huddle to briefly socialise and…

In peer observation of teaching, an experienced colleague in the educational environment of a faculty member observes the educational performance of that faculty member and provides appropriate feedback. The use of peer review as an alternative source of evidence of teaching effectiveness is increasing. However, no research has been done in the…

Does nonverbal communication exist in asynchronous, text-based online education? It is commonly believed that it does not due to the absence of body language and paralanguage. An examination of the definitions and forms of nonverbal cues suggests the possibility for some of them to be transmitted through asynchronous, text-based online human…

Flexibility is typical of open universities and their e-learning designs. While this constitutes their main attraction, promising learners will be able to study "anytime, anyplace," this also demands more self-regulation and engagement, a cause for student dropout. This case study explores professors' experiences of flexibility in…

The University of South Africa (UNISA) is one of the distance education universities that is shifting from open distance learning (ODL) to open distance e-learning (ODeL). UNISA started as a correspondence institution in the 1950s and it has since evolved into an ODeL university. The aim of this research was to assess and determine the maturity…

The competence of distance educators has a significant impact on learners' success. The paradigm shift for universities to become distance and electronic learning environments justifies the urgency to address competency gaps in distance educators' competencies efficiently. From a strategic human resource development perspective, the systems theory…

Tutoring involves providing learners with a suitable level of structure and guidance to support their learning. This study reports on an exploration of how to design such structure and guidance (i.e., learning scaffolds) in the Chinese online educational context, and in so doing, answer the following two questions: (a) What scaffolding strategies…

This article examines the effect of two Open Educational Resources (OER)--Khan Academy Collection and a teacher-authored open textbook--on mathematical course performance and attendance amongst first-year higher education Chilean students. It also aims to find out about teachers' and students' views on the use of OER in order to understand how…

In this paper, we discuss the challenges experienced by Kenyan public universities in implementation of e-learning and recommend possible solutions towards its successful implementation. In the last few years, most Kenyan public universities have adopted e-learning as a new approach to teaching and learning. However, the implementation challenges…

This survey research study presents the findings on determinants of teachers' attitudes towards e-learning in Tanzanian higher learning institutions. The study involved 258 teachers from 4 higher learning institutions obtained through stratified, simple random sampling. Questionnaires and documentary review were used in data collection. Data were…

This paper reviews the e-learning course development in selected universities of Mongolia and attempts to classify the e-learning programs that are in practice at the tertiary education level in the country. The given paper uses both secondary and primary sources. The authors determined what factors influence e-learning type classification and how…

The situation in Ukraine poses severe problems to the higher education system and to students in Eastern Ukraine. Many students and academicians had been compelled to leave their university buildings and move westwards. Hence, they are forced to substitute face-to-face teaching with distance learning, often on a large scale, but within a short…

The aim of this article is to shed some light on patterns of and major motives for the adoption of different types of disruptive learning innovations by Unisa academics. To realise the aim of the study, the following questions were addressed: What are the reasons for adopting disruptive learning innovations? What is the level of interaction with…