As online education expands, cultivating a sense of belonging becomes increasingly complex, especially for students who may never set foot on a physical campus. In this article, we explore the nuanced nature of fostering a sense of belonging and mattering among distance learners on our own campus, Indiana University (IU) East. To address these…

In this article, Michael Moore provides a bibliography of early 1980s online learning literature which was compiled when he was Director of the American Center for Study of Distance Education. The bibliography was compiled around 1990 and notes the names of some of the first thinkers and early initiatives in the field of online learning.

Educators adapted to teach online during the COVID-19 pandemic, many for the first time and without adequate training. We anticipate COVID-19 accelerated the prevalence of online course offerings at the postsecondary level with long-term effects. Thus, it is imperative that educators are prepared to navigate online teaching. The purpose of our…

Negotiation for meaning, in response to instances of non-understanding, plays an important role in SLA. Meaning negotiation routines in face-to-face classroom interactions have been identified by Varonis and Gass. Smith expands the model to adapt it to text chat CMC environments. In the past decade, synchronous audio CMC has become commonly used…

Advances in technology are currently helping to speed up the globalisation of 'super' languages. One can argue that at the same time technology might be used to help reverse the decline of less widely spoken languages. Cada Dia (CD) is a social learning method which uses online web meeting platforms, in combination with asynchronous learning…

This study on online L2 interactions compares lexical word search between an audioconferencing and a videoconferencing condition. Nine upper-intermediate learners of English describe a previously unseen photograph in either the videoconferencing or the audioconferencing condition. A semantic feature analysis is adopted to compare their…

With increased improvements to technology for online teaching, synchronous instruction continues to grow. Increasing student interaction has been an important component to enhance a sense of community in online learning and improve student satisfaction. There is a paucity of research on how to effectively manage online interaction and increase…

Many recent technologies provide the ability to dynamically adjust the interface depending on the emerging cognitive and collaborative needs of the learning episode. This means that educators can adaptively re-design the learning environment during the lesson, rather than purely relying on preemptive learning design thinking. Based on a…

A key reason for using asynchronous computer conferencing in instruction is its potential for supporting collaborative learning. However, few studies have examined collaboration in computer conferencing. This study examined collaboration in six peer review groups within an asynchronous computer conferencing. Eighteen tertiary students participated…

The use of online methods for professional development activities is on the rise, with more schools exploring creative ways of providing teacher learning opportunities. Online professional development offers a promising direction for providing increased learning opportunities, promoting professional collaboration, and supporting teacher facility…

Within the field of higher education, there are situations where the learner is not well served in a classroom setting. Problematic issues such as scheduling, critical mass, time, pace and location have the potential to be counterbalanced by e-learning. Within this, the asynchronous nature of today's online learning environments and computer…

The outcome of this paper is primarily to survey and analyse student interactions with electronic conferencing systems and to reflect on the impact of such a system on the students' learning within an open distance learning context. This pilot study is articulated within action research methodology to generate critical reflection on collaborative,…

For students, field trips can be the best of both worlds: a welcome and exciting break from day-to-day classroom activities and a memorable, real-world experience that will solidify the curriculum in their minds. Unfortunately, the most desirable trips--those to far-away, enticing destinations--have long been inaccessible to all but a select few,…

This study examined students' internal management of their cognitive processing in an interactive online class. A mixed methods approach was used to explore students' strategy use in online discussions. The focus is on examining individual knowledge construction through active cognitive engagement, rather than the social interactions, in the…

This study investigated the online practices of students enrolled in graduate-level distance education courses. Using interviews and a questionnaire as data sources, the study sought to: (a) identify common practices that students adopt in asynchronous discussions, and (b) gain an understanding of why students adopt them. An analysis of the data…