Online distance learning presents unique psychosocial characteristics due to the inherent distance between learners. Social presence --the sense of being with others-- is key to mitigating this distance. However, our understanding of social presence remains limited, despite its potential to reduce social isolation and cultivate a conducive social…

The article explores how intercultural relations can be fostered at the level of an undergraduate university degree during the pandemic. It offers one specific intervention within intercultural education to provide new ways of thinking about how intercultural relations can and do happen. By drawing on the "self-reflexive narratives" of…

The advancement of technology has led to an increase in undergraduate students pursuing degrees online. The translation of undergraduate research to the online environment is relatively new, though gaining momentum, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mentoring is a key undergraduate research support, particularly for those engaged online, as it…

Maintaining your research team's productivity during the COVID-19 era can be a challenge. Developing new strategies to mentor your research trainees in remote work environments will not only support research productivity and progress toward degree, but also help to keep your mentees' academic and research careers on track. We describe a three-step…

This study aims to explore the application of Transactional Distance theory in distance teaching in the post-epidemic era. COVID-19 has brought us unprecedented challenges in all schools in the world. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can solve the technical problems of distance learning, but cannot bring efficient learning just…

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most universities to shift from traditional face-to-face teaching to remote learning. This sudden transition has presented numerous challenges for institutions that were unaccustomed to remote work, particularly in the context of senior design projects in engineering. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the…

Many students who enroll in online universities will never graduate. Attrition in higher education is accepted and expected; however, in exclusively online programs, it is prolific, with more than 80% of those students who begin an online program leaving before graduating. It is well known in the academic literature that isolation is related to…

Establishment of online communities in distance education has been linked to improved engagement, retention, and learning outcomes. This study investigates how online community building was fostered in the text-based Discussion Board (DB) and multimodal VoiceThread (VT) in one of the postgraduate units offered by Open Universities Australia.…

While online learning holds many benefits for graduate students, lack of student interaction often found in asynchronous content delivery may negatively impact student engagement. This study examined student perceptions of online lecture-embedded interactive activities that promoted student active engagement through quizzes and gamification. From…

Objective: We examined how mentorship, remote participation, and COVID-19 challenges were associated with the mental health of college students participating in summer research programs. Participants: Participants were students participating in 78 National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) Sites during Summer…

Visual media and virtual reality are now a common features of distance education environments. This has boosted research into questions surrounding visual media and technologies for educators' professional development and teaching practice. This research explored educators' views on identity and teaching presence in visual media in distance…

Previous research has suggested that bachelor's and master's students seem to experience challenges with thesis writing, and the need for support might be greater when studying at a distance. To further develop supportive practices for thesis writing, this study points to a need to acknowledge materialities and spaces as active and necessary…

Taking a practice perspective, this article explores how built spaces within the university can impact on, and enable, practices of everyday professional learning amongst university educators. The discussion draws on analysis, informed by the theory of practice architectures, of interviews with six academics at a Swedish university. Three main…

We describe strategies, designs, tools, and technologies that were part of a 9-week experimental virtual summer internship program conducted during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The goals for the program were to (1) recreate the in-person summer internship experience, (2) explore ways of getting people to help each other, and (3)…

Despite its flexibility, remote learning is a complex process which depends on several elements considered as pillars of online learning and which affect each other. The purpose of the study is to reveal the learners' feeling of social isolation while learning remotely as well as the effectiveness of online communication channels in ensuring…