Background: Student engagement has been conceptualised and operationalised in various learning environments. However, there is currently a lack of established scales to measure student engagement in synchronous online learning. One possible reason is the existence of the conceptual and structural ambiguity regarding student engagement. Objective:…

Background: Online synchronous learning in higher education frequently struggles to overcome the social presence gap, resulting in dissatisfaction and poor learning outcomes. Objectives: This study examined the effectiveness of desktop-based virtual reality (VR) social platforms compared to video conferencing (VC) platforms in enhancing students'…

Background: Deep discussions play an important role in students' online learning. However, researchers have largely focused on engaging students in deep discussions in online asynchronous forums. Few studies have investigated how to promote deep discussion via mobile instant messaging (MIM). Objectives: In this study, we applied learning…

Background: The existing literature has predominantly focused on instructor social presence in videos in an asynchronous learning environment and little is known about student social presence on webcam in online learning in the context of COVID-19. Objectives: This paper therefore contrasts students' and teachers' perspectives on student social…

Background: Collaborative computer simulations are available on some online platforms which support students at distributed locations to synchronously collaborate on the simulations to learn sciences. However, how students collaborate with each other in collaborative simulations is not clear. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate…

Background: Online learning and teaching were globally popularized due to the impact of COVID-19. The pandemic has made both synchronous and asynchronous online learning inevitable in regions privileged with the technological affordance. Aims: This study was designed to examine and compare the effectiveness of both learning modes through the…

Background: There are various challenges to teachers' use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for professional learning. Although GenAI is expected to play a transformative role in teachers' learning, its impact on them remains subtle. Objectives: Guided by community of practice, this paper examines the integration of GenAI into an…

Background: During the COVID-19 period, academics and higher education institutions have shown deep concern about academic integrity related to measurement and evaluation issues that have arisen in online education. Objectives: To address this concern, this paper examined the prevalence of cheating behaviour among university students before and…

Background: Virtual reality can be a useful substitute to improve nursing education outside of the hospital setting. In the wake of COVID-19, an opportunity to compare a virtual reality activity for nursing students in the traditional classroom and in an online environment took place. Objectives: The goal of this study was to examine the effects…

Online learning has been rapidly developing in the last decade. However, there is very little literature available about the actual adoption of online synchronous assessment approaches and any guidelines for effective assessment design and implementation. This paper aims at designing and evaluating the possibility of applying online synchronous…