Students' perceptions towards synchronous and asynchronous online delivery modes of three engineering courses, in a large UK university is conceptualised, inspired by the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework. Using a qualitative methodology, 76 written student narratives were analysed. An overwhelming focus on the elements that helped them…

The UN locates education at the heart of the process to achieve a more sustainable future and deliver the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) by 2030. Within this context, this paper outlines the experience of designing and delivering an international virtual mobility workshop which brought together university students from the UK and…

Fieldwork is a pedagogical cornerstone of many geoscience degrees. During the academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic made outdoors fieldwork difficult, resulting in an urgent need to develop virtual alternatives. However, there is still more to learn about the impact of teaching fieldwork virtually on the student…

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in profound disruption to geography higher education. A pivot to online teaching required staff to rapidly adapt their practices to novel digital spaces. Whilst many studies have reported the different pedagogic approaches adopted, fewer have evaluated the resultant student learning experience. In this study, we…

Online learning is crucial to success for higher education institutions. Whilst the existing literature predominantly focused on its economic advantages, we focused on its inclusivity. At an online learning unit of a UK university, the number of students with disabilities (SWD) is three times higher than the national average. Having a degree makes…

The goal of this paper is to present the primary findings of the first of two phases of a research project that looks at how can undergraduates be supported to engage meaningfully with digital literacies in a rich-research context. My hypothesis is that students in the act of (re)-designing and implementing their personal learning environment with…

For many universities around the world, internationalisation means the recruitment of fee-paying international students (so-called export education) for primarily commercial reasons. For UK universities, international (non-European Union) students account for approximately 13% of their annual revenues, making them highly dependent on international…

A vast body of research has indicated the importance of distinguishing new vs. continuing students' learning experiences in blended and online environments. Continuing learners may have developed learning and coping mechanisms for "surviving" in such learning environments, while new learners might still need to adjust their learning…

A key concern for most institutions and instructors is whether students are satisfied with their learning experience. However, relatively few studies have unpacked what the key drivers for learner satisfaction are in blended and online courses. Using logistical regression modelling, learner satisfaction data of 62,986 learners in 401 undergraduate…

The area of learning has a justifiable claim to be a special case in how it can be enhanced or supported by technology. In areas such as commerce and web design the aim is usually to ensure efficiency and support specific actions such as purchasing or accessing information as quickly and easily as possible. Working with technology for the purpose…

By presenting perceptions of Nigerian students enrolled in the online international postgraduate programmes of the University of Liverpool regarding academic integrity, this paper aims to explore Western ideas, such as originality and plagiarism that are extraneous in the students' local cultures. Different historical and cultural circumstances…

This paper reports on an action research study investigating the use of online learning activities or "e-tivities" to enhance the learning and assessment experience of students on a distance master's programme. The study suggests that to be successfully integrated in a programme, such activities need to be carefully aligned with learning…

International postgraduate students are important to the higher education sectors of many countries. They arrive from all over the world with diverse cultures and prior experiences. Such students present additional challenges in terms of programme-based learning and teaching support. This action research was undertaken at a large university…

Modern day students are said to hold a toolbox of technical knowledge, which can assist them with their undergraduate studies. The "net generation" is more technologically capable than ever before and crave interactivity and image-rich environments, which has created a need for higher education institutions to diversify assessment…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review some of the learning technologies associated with teaching and learning in higher education (HE). It looks at e-learning and information technology (IT) as tools for replacing the traditional learning experience in HE, i.e. the "chalk and talk" lecture and seminar. HE is on the threshold of…