The purpose of the current study was to investigate the sense of community in graduate level distance education programs. This manuscript provides the results of a descriptive analysis of the existing sense of community among students while exploring the most robust prediction model to explain the variation. This cross-sectional analysis included…

The role of social tools in massive open online courses (MOOCs) is essential as they connect participants. Of all the participants in an MOOC, top contributors are the ones who more actively contribute via social tools. This article analyses and reports empirical data from five different social tools pertaining to an actual MOOC to characterize…

Instructional technologies can be effective tools to foster student engagement, but university faculty may be reluctant to integrate innovative and evidence-based modern learning technologies into instruction. Based on Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory, this quantitative, nonexperimental, one-shot cross-sectional survey determined what…

This study examined predictors of pre-service science teachers' behavioral intention toward e-resources use for teaching in Nigeria. The study used cross-sectional survey research method and a questionnaire with a set of items that measure technology preparedness, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and behavioral intention to gather the…

Since Apple released the iPad in 2010, it has been widely adopted for teaching and learning. Its graphical user interface combined with touch screen features engages users by attracting their attention. However, the level of engagement that would influence learning is not well understood. This case study investigated the use of iPads when engaging…

Self-regulated learning theories are used to understand the reasons for different levels of university student academic performance. Similarly, learning analytics research proposes the combination of detailed data traces derived from technology-mediated tasks with a variety of algorithms to predict student academic performance. The former approach…

Enrolment in university enabling programs has expanded dramatically in the last decade as universities strive to increase enrolments, particularly of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Offering enabling study by distance education has been part of this expansion with the benefit of providing access to a wider enrolment base. The purpose…

This paper seeks to provide further understanding of issues surrounding acceptance of information and communication technology (ICT) by students of tertiary institutions. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model Venkatesh et al (2003) was employed by the researchers to determine the strength of predictors for students'…

The objective of this study was to determine if the time spent on Facebook and the purpose for which Facebook was used had any impact on the academic achievement of the students. This exploratory research used a questionnaire to collect data from 251 undergraduate students at a private university in Bangkok, Thailand. Data were analyzed using…

Prior research suggests that exposure to conflict can negatively impact the development of executive functioning, which in turn can affect academic performance. Recognizing the need to better understand the potentially widespread executive function deficiencies among Palestinian students and to help develop educational resources targeted to youth…

In this single-case study, small groups of learners were supported by use of multiple social software tools and face-to-face activities in the context of higher education. The aim of the study was to explore how designed learning activities contribute to students' learning outcomes by studying probabilistic dependencies between the variables.…

Purpose: Online programs rely on the use of educational technology for knowledge sharing in academic virtual communities of practice (vCoPs). This poses the question as to which factors influence technology acceptance. Previous research has investigated the inter-relationship between educational technology acceptance (ETA) and the vCoP context…

Previous studies on business simulation games (BSGs) have concluded that improved performance may not be the primary benefit of using BSGs, due to mixed results between student performance and perceptions. Two relevant and insightful issues attract our attention, namely, the impacts of the heterogeneous student population and the different…

In recent years, the application of Information Technologies (IT) has fostered a tremendous growth in e-learning courses at colleges and universities in the United States. Subsequently, some colleges and universities have reported dropout rates of over 60% in e-learning courses. This research investigated persistence in e-learning courses of 187…

This paper reports on a case study which examined factors leading to the adoption of graphics calculators (GCs) by secondary mathematics teachers in the state of New South Wales, Australia. In total, 587 teachers of the General Mathematics Course (Years 11 and 12) participated in the study. The median teachers' stage of adoption of GCs was found…