The COVID-19 pandemic has created many problems in our society today from psychological, political, economic and educational standpoints, just to name a few. This is a generational event that we will look back on as creating "the new normal" for our society. In March of 2020, Purdue University transitioned from teaching students in a…

Remote learning was a key component of college strategies for addressing the COVID-19 crisis across the country. While many colleges already supported online delivery, others migrated course content to remote platforms for the first time. According to Holin IQ, the last half of 2020 saw the second largest amount of spending on information…

This paper shares lessons learned and effective practices in online teaching and learning from veteran faculty and students in an online graduate therapeutic recreation program at SUNY Cortland, now in its sixth year (2020-2021). The number of students in online learning is growing and consists of a diverse group of adults working full and or…

Developing online educators can be enhanced by applying models of skill acquisition and online learning practices with mentoring for skill development. These practices and processes are rooted in understanding the foundational role of self-direction in online professional development.

We provide a narrative review of the crucial elements for online Problem Based Learning (PBL) and a reflective overview of factors to consider when temporarily moving to online tutorials, forming a practical guide for educators in the health professions and beyond. We give general set-up advice based on the literature and our own recent experience…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused instructors to quickly pivot their teaching into the remote environment. Now, as we conclude over a year of remote instruction, faculty need to focus on developing excellence in online and hybridized education. Research has been dedicated to discovering best practices in online teaching, but much of that work was…

It is a common belief that engagement and motivation are crucial factors in learning and especially in language learning. In particular, increasing motivation can lead to the mobilization of students' personal, cognitive, emotional and behavioral resources and, consequently to better learning results. As digital technology has become more…

Student engagement is consistently identified as a key predictor of learner outcomes within the online learning environment. However, there is limited guidance about using proactive strategies to improve engagement for low and non-engaged students: for example by specifically employing course learning analytics (CLA) and nudging strategies in…

There is a mass movement toward conducting classes online due to the coronavirus situation. The call for new ways to engage students in a synchronous online course is especially urgent. Given that most face-to-face classes in physical settings have been cancelled, it is imperative that instructors know how to engage students in online lessons so…

Many mathematics students require support for learning challenges, such as those invoked by mathematics anxiety. Support for these learning challenges is imparted through personal interactions between the student and the instructor, support staff or their peers. The online delivery of mathematics classes and support meetings reduced the quality of…

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted in-person education in spring 2020, learning leaders urgently needed collaborative professional learning -- to take deep breaths, reflect on how to shift their practices, and support one another emotionally and logistically to survive and eventually thrive in this unfamiliar learning environment. However, many…

Here, we describe a free, web-based simulation of the lac operon, "LacOp," that is designed to enhance the learning of prokaryotic gene regulation and pathways in advanced high school and undergraduate genetics courses. This new electronic resource was created by a team of students in an advanced undergraduate course and is hosted online…

How can you switch from a hands-on face-to-face chemistry course to an online course in the face of a pandemic? It is possible to have students do hands-on experiments at home. There are many readily available kitchen, drug store, and garden chemicals that can be used to illustrate the same principles in standard chemistry curricula at multiple…

In this paper the authors present a vision that by 2025 all teacher education programs will prepare teacher candidates with the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to be successful teaching in online and blended modalities. The authors present evidence that all teachers need to be proficient in online and blended teaching, and they provide…

Engaging and motivating learners to successfully complete their studies are crucial elements for the success of distance educators around the world. The researchers' AIM newsletter, which is formatted in accordance with motivational learning theory, has been delivered to first-year learners in economics at Open Polytechnic of New Zealand from 2010…