As universities seek to innovate to meet the needs of students, compressed courses are becoming more prevalent. This study compares a compressed-format course to a traditional format course in economics that were each taught in the summer. Results indicate that student performance in a compressed course differs in meaningful ways. Effort-based…

This design case explores the development of tools to foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in course design and teaching at a predominantly white institution. We designed a suite of tools for instructional designers and faculty to review online courses, helping to ensure quality course design and meaningful learning experiences…

This research assesses the extent to which asynchronous online STEM courses at a public university integrate Merrill's First Principles of Instruction. Through a quantitative content analysis of thirty unique online courses within the College of Arts and Sciences, the study investigates the extent, if any, to which these courses embody principles…

At present, the construction of online courses is an important content in the process of educational informatization. At present, there are two problems in the construction of online courses: from the teaching point of view, the design of teaching activities and teaching processes in online courses is not enough, and the teaching effect is not…

What are the features of high-quality online courses in higher education? In this scoping review, we explore peer-reviewed scholarship related to the features of online learning in postsecondary contexts. We searched ERIC (EBSCO), Education Research Complete, and SocINDEX with Fulltext to retrieve peer-reviewed literature from 2010-2022 pertaining…

Opportunities and concerns regarding the use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in higher education have evolved along with them. A concern is how their use could support the higher-order learning appropriate for higher education. Grounded in the conversational framework, this case study explored how reflective practice could be fostered in a…

The wash-rinse-repeat model of refreshing courses each term might be a financially beneficial model for the institution, yet is it serving students the best educational experience? If all that is monitored in the pre-flight check is for broken hyperlinks and refreshed dates, who is ensuring the quality delivery? Many institutions proudly boast…

Higher education is rapidly changing, and instructors are striving to match the needs of 21st-century digital learners. There is a growing demand and shift from traditional classes to the online mode of instruction for most post-secondary learning institutions. Additionally, with the recent pandemic (COVID-19), post-secondary institutions had to…

There is limited empirical study that examines effective evaluation pedagogy on evaluation competency outcomes. The purposes of this article are to: (1) identify key course design features critical to integrating real-world projects in a course-based service-learning model; and (2) provide empirical data using mixed-methods evaluation to assess…

This study aimed to develop a maker spirit problem-based learning (PBL) innovation and entrepreneurship course and explore its impact on students' learning effectiveness. A mixed research method was adopted for this study, in which qualitative and quantitative data were collected for inductive analysis. The research subjects comprised 49 students…

For Massive Open Online Courses to have trustworthy credentials, assessments in these courses must be valid, reliable, and fair. Item Response Theory provides a robust approach to evaluating these properties. However, for this theory to be applicable, certain properties of the assessment items should be met, among them that item difficulties are…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools at all levels were often closed and online distance instruction (ODI) was applied. The main objective of this research was to discover the main didactic features of online distance instruction; and based on the collected data to define didactic recommendations towards improving the quality of the process. Five…

We demonstrate evaluating levels of student engagement in online classes for accreditation. By synthesizing four categories of student engagement (Hillman, Willis, & Gunawardena, 1994) and individual activities from Adler (2020), we extend and use a comprehensive set of student engagement activities for assessment. This systematic evaluation…

Online courses often include interface designs that do not support a positive learner experience. Literature shows a variety of heuristics to detect issues of online courses. While heuristic-based inspection of usability is a dominant method for evaluating digital systems, these methods cannot be easily transferred to online courses. To close this…

With the development of instructional design literature and the potential of online courses to support learning, there exists a gap between theoretical knowledge (theory) and practice (reality). The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the design of online courses for teaching and learning, and what designers and…