Inclusion is widely recognized as one of the founding principles for the quality of educational institutions and it is strictly related to the ICF perspective. Actually, the conceptualization of educational needs is associated to the enhancement of everyone's strengths and potential, and to the influence the (physical and social) environment may…

The use of virtual learning communities has shown great potential for language education. Research suggests that video-conferencing technology can assist teachers in creating such communities for second-language teaching. Gather.Town is a gamified, video-conferencing platform that revolutionizes the traditional static video-conferencing experience…

Distance education during emergencies requires planning, design, and goal setting to create an effective learning environment. Virtual distance education involves more than just uploading educational content; it is rather an educational process that provides choice for learners, as well as flexibility and responsibility for learning and academic…

Virtual education has been steadily growing since the late 1990s. Early research was primarily focused on the comparative studies between brick-and-mortar schools and virtual or hybrid schools. While the research over the past two decades has grown substantially and now includes broader topics such as for whom virtual education seems to work well…

This paper is based on work carried out during the first six months of 2021, a year into the COVID-19 pandemic and a time by which the practices of online learning and teaching had become familiarised and -- to some extent -- even standardised in our institution, as in most others. We are chiefly concerned here with the online teaching space as a…

Purpose: The onus of this study was to find out the role played by virtual learning environment factors on students' satisfaction during the COVID-19 period in Nigeria. A survey was carried out on students in higher education institutions in Nigeria to actualize this purpose. Design/methodology/approach: Simple random sampling techniques with the…

With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions were compelled to adopt distance learning as a temporary solution, substituting physical classrooms with virtual ones. However, even post-pandemic, several universities find themselves facing dilemma concerning organizing the education process. This pertains to the decision of…

This qualitative phenomenological study examines special education teachers' perspectives to understand how virtual learning environments can support, through social-emotional interactions, the cognitive development of students with low-incident disabilities in a homebound setting. For this study, which was based on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory…

Speaking English in a face-to-face classroom versus an online classroom may make EFL students feel uneasy in different ways, depending on a variety of factors. To help students reduce anxiety, teachers must understand the different levels of anxiety they experience in different situations. This study investigated the differences in…

In this paper, we describe a teaching scenario using a virtual environment (known also in the context of the 'metaverse'). This is motivated by the challenges that arise during the pandemic. More and more teaching scenarios are transferred to online learning settings, which allow learning at any time and at any time. One of the possibilities are…

The field of autonomous language learning in second language acquisition has experienced significant growth since its introduction by Holec in the 1980s. Several studies have explored how to promote learning autonomy in various spaces, including online learning environments. However, research related to autonomous language learning in online…

Purpose: One of the misconceptions of teaching and learning for practical-based programmes, such as engineering, sciences, architecture, design and arts, is the necessity to deliver via face-to-face physical modality. This paper refutes this claim by providing case studies of best practices in delivering such courses and their hands-on skillsets…

Social work programs are preparing professionals to respond to natural disasters and global pandemics when they arise. However, literature on the learning experiences of students in the social work classroom with synchronous instruction during a natural disaster or global pandemic is limited, as is documentation of the experiences of social work…

Over the past decade we have seen a rise in the adoption and proliferation of social technologies, and along with these a move to build on the capacity to embrace new pedagogies and practices that can open our boundaries for both teaching and learning. How do we determine what we mean by space specifically in online environments and how can we…

In recent years, the use of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) has risen exponentially throughout higher education in the UK. Whilst TEL is an umbrella term for a range of technologies, evidence suggests that in the UK, TEL is usually delivered via the medium of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) for the provision of lecture materials and…